40 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



cember, he proceeded up the Nile in a canja, which 

 was to carry him to Furshoot, the residence of 

 Haman, Sheik of Upper Egypt. As he passed 

 along, he was gratified with a sight of the pyra- 

 mids, and surveyed with delight the picturesque 

 scenery of that ancient country. The situation of 

 Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, excited his 

 attention, and he entered keenly into the conflicting 

 opinions respecting its position, as maintained by 

 Shaw, Pococke, Niebuhr, and others; but it is 

 needless for us to touch upon that controversy, 

 which will likely remain for ever a topic of dispute, 

 as the reader perhaps knows that not a vestige of 

 Memphis has existed for many centuries. 



The ruinous villages and Arab encampments on 

 the margin of the river, gave life and variety to the 

 scene. Palm trees studded the green narrow valley, 

 and behind them rose the barren hills of a whitish 

 sandy colour, and completely destitute of all vege- 

 tation. At Rhoda, Bruce saw the magnificent ruins 

 of the ancient city Antinous, built by Adrian. In 

 some parts of the valley the ground was sown from 

 the foot of the mountains to the waters edge, the 

 grain being merely thrown, after the river has sub- 

 sided, upon the mud, without any preparation of the 

 plough. In the progress of his voyage, Bruce 

 visited Girge, Dendera, Furshoot, Thebes, Luxor, 

 Karnac, and other places memorable for their stu- 

 pendous ruins, which have since his time been 

 depicted and described by a hundred subsequent 

 travellers ; of many of these he took sketches, at the 



