1895} Kom Ombo and Assouan 197 



own to £5. He asked me to try and get his raised. I said I would try- 

 to do so, but fear there is no chance. 



"4th Nov. — On board the Ibis. We passed Erment this morning 

 where there are many lebbek and gemeyseh trees apparently twenty 

 years old, also larger factories and some cotton cultivation. I did not 

 notice any dogs there, though Erment is famous for its large rough 

 breed. The dogs generally of the Upper Niles are rougher than those 

 in the north. Matana, a beautifully wooded place, was one of the 

 Khedive Ismail's properties. Esneh in the afternoon, away from the 

 river with two square masses of ancient stonework on mounds of rub- 

 bish. Stopped for the night at Silsilis, the moon very splendid, as red 

 and bright as a fire lit just under it when it rose. 



" My companions on board are three or four English officers of the 

 Egyptian army, with the limited conversation of their kind. But I 

 like young Broadwood who commands the cavalry at Wady Haifa. 



" $th Nov. — Some attractive desert places on the left bank where 

 cultivation has been abandoned and its place taken by half a grass and 

 green bushes — the palms gone wild. There are a good many horses 

 turned ou't, tethered in the barley to graze, and on the durra. Some of 

 them are bays with white faces and four white legs, probably of the 

 Dongola breed — tall, with straight shoulders and drooping quarters. 

 Kom Ombo close to the river, temple and fort on a natural mound. 

 The river is now generally from a kilometre to a mile broad, a few 

 mud banks beginning to show in places. 



" At 1 130 arrived at Assouan. It has a European appearance. The 

 approach to it is fine. Having made acquaintance on board with Mus- 

 tafa Bey Shakir, deputy mamur of Assouan, I inquired of him what 

 government lands there were for sale — this for Evelyn, who has an 

 idea of purchasing here — and he sent me on a donkey to look at a 

 building belonging to the Government known as the Mukhtab el Miri 

 el Buhari, about 'two miles down the river. There are well wooded 

 gardens near it, which the guard said might be bought from the fel- 

 lahin owners for £10 and £15 the feddan. The Government is asking 

 £300 for the building. In a few years the railway will be brought near 

 it, and it might not be a bad purchase. 



" Then by train to Shellal, put my things on board the s'teamer, and 

 spent 'the evening sailing about Phila? and the edge of the cataract, one 

 of the loveliest things I remember of the kind. Indeed, the only recol- 

 lection I can compare with it is 'the boating expedition we made on the 

 great tank at Hyderabad ten years ago. It was a perfect evening, and 

 the rocks and swirling water in the twilight, and the boat with the 

 Berber crew singing were everything one could imagine in Philse. 



" 6th Nov. — Rode on donkey-back before sunrise to see the position 

 of the proposed dam, which is a mile or so below Philse. Philse as it 



