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its steep bank and were hastening up the bushy slope to the 

 magnificent temple. After inspecting every part of it we 

 walked to the most southerly point of the island ; and it was 

 with sorrowful feelings that I clambered out to the very 

 brink of its precipitous shore, and looked up the sacred stream 

 over the widening valley and the plains of Nubia. 



A large portion of our journey was now accomplished, for 

 we had reached our southernmost goal, and though the inter- 

 tropical region of Nubia, the tropics, and by night the highest 

 stars of the famous Southern Cross were luring and enticing 

 us onward, we could follow them no longer. 



We ate the lunch which we had brought with us, in one of 

 the ancient pavilions of the temple, now known as the kiosk. 

 This building, with the terrace in front of it, rears itself proudly 

 above the rushing stream on a high embankment, and is still 

 in perfect preservation. 



From the entrance of its pillared hall one enjoys a distant 

 view of exceptionally picturesque beauty, and there is an in- 

 describable poetic charm in this wilderness and in the luxu- 

 riantly green island with its grand memorials of a time long 

 past away, which rises in its midst from the waters of the 

 sacred stream. Philse is a picture which impresses itself upon 

 the memory as one of the brightest points of the journey, and 

 one that can never be forgotten. 



Descending from the temple to the bank, we rowed up- 

 stream to the Cataracts in a very primitive boat, and for a long 

 time we could still see the rocky island, the black-granite cliffs, 

 the flowering shrubs, and the towering temple, while the brown 

 oarsmen sang melancholy songs that harmonized with the 

 grandeur and beauty of the scene. 



Landing below the actual commencement of the Cataract, 

 where the stream is split up into different branches, we walked 

 along the rocky bank to a point from which one can see the 

 whole of this wild confusion of rocks and water. The Cata- 



