A:;D L0V\''ER EGYPT. 35 



On the morning of the 29th we set sail with a 

 fine breeze from the north-east. The weather was 

 dehghtful, and the atmosphere, freed from the 

 clouds of dust with which it had been loaded the 

 preceding days, was encircled by its resplendent 

 canopy of azure. Mountains of sand and of rock 

 elevated and hewn perpendicularly, present on 

 the eastern shore of the Nile, the course of which 

 they contracted, a chain of impregnable ramparts. 

 They extend themselves to a distance by immense 

 and frequent intersections into the desert, the hor- 

 rors of which they augment ; and the river, wash- 

 ing them with its current, imperceptibly under- 

 mines their foundation. These lofty masses of 

 stone advance sometimes into the Nile, so as to 

 render the straits which they thereby form very- 

 dangerous for navigation. In other places they re- 

 semble natural fortresses, which would be, in rea- 

 lity, abundantly sufficient to defend the passage 

 of the Nile. Refusing to harbour any human be- 

 ing, these barren and horrible mountainsarethedo- 

 inain of a multitude of birds who have there fixed 

 their habitation, where they never meet with any 

 disturbance, and from whence they spread them- 

 selves over the waters, and through the country, to 

 search for prey and for pasture. The name of 

 Dsjebel el Teir (mountain of the birds) given to 

 this chain of rocks, indicates with what sort of in- 

 habitants it is peopled. 



D 2 We 



