'A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 309 



Slowly and cautiously we proceeded towards one of these 

 congregations of many thousands of individuals, examinino- it 

 carefully with the glass, but finding only Pelicans, and none 

 of the Flamingoes which we were so intent on pursuing. 



As soon as we had got within five hundred yards the hirds 

 began to get restless and to stretch out their long necks and 

 move their wings. At the word of command four rifles 

 astonished them with a morning salute, and this was responded 

 to by a great commotion, a vigorous flapping of wings and a 

 general rising, the white island changing into a great cloud, 

 which cast a perfectly compact shadow on the water. 



Now began a lively dropping fire, which curiously enough 

 took no effect. In this sort of shooting, however, the distance 

 is enormous, and among the masses of birds which are ap- 

 parently so closely packed there are, nevertheless, many gaps 

 and interspaces through which a ball can easily pass. Only 

 one solitary Pelican floated dead upon the water, and this 

 bird, which had been hit in the first volley, was fetched by 

 one of the crew, who waded across for it. 



The further we penetrated among the islands the livelier 

 grew the scene. Gulls and Terns were tumbling about over 

 the water. Myriads of Coots, a few Shovellers, with some 

 divers and smaller ducks, which were too far off to be iden- 

 tified, were swimming to and fro, and on the islands were 

 standing Great Egrets, Little Egrets, and Grey Herons, 

 while the sand-banks swarmed with flocks of various kinds of 

 Sandpipers. None of the islands were so attractive as to 

 make us halt, and it was not until noon, after the fleet had 

 reunited, and all the gentlemen had come on board our daha- 

 beeyah to eat the lunch prepared on the cook's vessel, that we 

 sighted a larger island adorned with a white tower. 



This was an old Sheikh's tomb, the burial-place of a holy 

 man of great celebrity at Lake Menzaleh. A narrow channel 

 there ran between two islands, and a fisherman's miserable little 



