348 A GREAT DESERT MARCH. 



could not be induced to make up their minds, until 

 too late in the season, when the waters of the Nile 

 which formed the British line of communication, were 

 known to be rapidly falling. The expedition was 

 therefore foredoomed to failure by starting at the wrong 

 time of year; the numerous accounts of it that have 

 been' published, however, show that there was generally 

 a good supply of coarse grasses for camels throughout 

 the whole extent of this desert march, of 185 miles, 

 measured in a direct line from Korti to Gubat, but that ex- 

 cept in small quantities permanent water of good quality 

 was then to be found at one place only, known as the 

 fountain of Gakdul, situated about midway between 

 these two points. 



The Nile region, from the remotest ages, has been 

 the constant wonder of the world all the phenomena 

 of its existence appearing unprecedented, mysterious, 

 and inexplicable for here the desert assumes its most 

 gigantic proportions; and the great river itself has 

 steadily flowed from age to age, for nearly 1200 miles, 

 through an almost continuous desert, without being 

 fed by a single affluent. For a great part of its course 

 the river has worn its way through an almost rainless 

 region : so dry are the adjoining deserts, and so scanty 

 and uncertain are the rains, that the cultivation of crops 

 of any kind is totally impossible without constant 

 irrigation by means of canals and waterwheels. For 

 the greater part of the way from the first to the second 

 cataract, for example, the actual width of Egypt is only a 

 few yards bordering the edges of the Nile the rest is sand. 



These vast and interminable deserts, called by what- 

 ever name we please, the Nubian, the Libyan, or the 

 Sahara, form to all intents and purposes one continuous 



