240 Captain Pringle's Route to India 



Syene, the first cataract, another fortnight. It is possible to 

 travel more expeditiously on canals ; but in that case, besides 

 the journey being more fatiguing, some of the antiquities 

 would be missed, as they lie on both sides of the river. 



The best season to travel in Egypt is winter, or the early part 

 of spring. Towards April the weather becomes very hot. At 

 Ghinneh, the thermometer had risen in the end of March to 

 104° of Fahrenheit in the shade ; but as the nights are compa- 

 ratively cool, little inconvenience is felt, and there is none of 

 that sultry oppression, which is experienced in India at a low- 

 er temperature. A few weeks previous to the above state of 

 the thermometer, it had been as low as 46° ; the dress, there- 

 fore, must be such as can easily be adapted to such changes. 

 In Egypt there is no use in adopting the Turkish dress, the 

 European one being a better protection. But in the Red Sea, 

 it may be as well to make your servant wear the Arab dress, 

 or at least to have one for marketing, &c. 



There is excellent shooting on the Nile and its banks ; the 

 game consisting of quails, snipes, wild ducks, geese, crocodiles, 

 &c. 



At Ghinneh, there is an Arab merchant, named Hassan 

 Omar, who acts as an agent for English travellers, and will 

 make arrangements for camels to pass the desert with. He 

 and Osman, at Cairo, are recompensed by a present, or a few 

 dollars. The desert between Ghinneh and Kosseir, is passed 

 with ease in a few days ; and each camel employed on this 

 route costs about a dollar. A field mattress, laid across the 

 camel's saddle, forms an easy enough seat, and is convenient- 

 ly ready to lie down upon at any short halt. A tent is not at 

 all requisite in an atmosphere where it never rains. There 

 are two wells on the road, but the water is a little brackish. 

 Shrubs and camels 1 dung for fuel are found in sufficient quan- 

 tity to cook what is necessary. The traveller should provide 

 himself with live fowls, as in some winds butcher-meat be- 

 comes putrid in a few hours. 



Six weeks may be considered as the shortest period for tra- 

 velling from Alexandria to Kosseir, if it is meant to take 

 a cursory view of the antiquities of Egypt ; but the whole 



