ro 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Ai'BiL 1, 1901. 



So on the last day of February, 1900, I set out from 

 England, joining at Marseilles Messrs. E. H. Saunders 

 and C. F. Cambtirn, two taxidermists who were to 

 accompany me, and we reached Cairo on March 6th. 



The journey from Cairo to Wady Haifa, even under 

 the new conditions created bj' the railway, is to-day 

 so well known that it requires but a brief description. 



Instead of a long journey by boat up the Nile one 

 can now travel from Cairo to Assouan in about 22 hours 

 in a train, which for ease and luxury would not shame 

 any European railway. Notwithstanding the lowness 

 of the Nile at the time of our visit, th.e country from 

 Cairo to Luxor was green and luxuriant. Camels, cattle, 

 sheep aud goats abounded, and evervwhere the half- 

 naked people of many shades of chocolate, browu, and 

 black were working on the land. Beyond Luxor the 

 area of cultivated land grew gradually less. Wells, 

 sakiehs, and shadoofs were not so frecjuent, villages were 

 passed at longer intervals, and the inhabitants and theii- 

 cattle became more rare in the landscape. 



At Assouan we found every comfort. From this point 

 to Omdurman wo travelled under the joint Government 

 of the Queen and Khedive. From Assouan a short piece 

 of line took us to Shellal, above the first cataract, and 

 there just opposite the Temple of Philae we embarked 

 upon a steamer, for no railway yet connects Assouan and 

 Wady Haifa. And here the character of the country 

 completely altered. The day before we had travelled 

 through a flat fertile land, whilst now we were steaming 

 up the great river through a wild and desolate country 

 of bare rocky hills, and having the merest strip of culti- 

 vated land by the edge of the river. 



Here and there, however, where flat ground was avail- 

 able between the river bank and the foot of the hills, 

 as for instance at Korosko, cultivation was carried on. 

 But this w-as onl}' possible with the aid of an elaborate, 

 although primitive, system of irrigation. The sakieh, an 

 endless chain of pitchers, somewhat in the form of a 

 water-wheel, turned by oxen, and the shadoof, a bucket 

 at the end of a long lever balanced by a lump of mud 

 ■ and worked by men, were emploj'ed in raising the water 

 from the river above the high bank. Often two sakiehs, 

 or four or five shadoofs one above another, or a com- 

 bination of sakiehs and shadoofs, were necessary to lift 

 the water, so low was the river and so high was the 

 bank. 



Of birds there were few in this reach of the river, but 

 we noticed particularly that the hooded or grey crows* 

 sp common north of Assouan, were no longer to be seen, 

 their place being taken by a crow of pure black and 

 white,t which was to be found as far south as we after- 

 wards travelled. 



The scenery was bold and impressive, and the colour- 

 ing exceedingly beautiful. The blue-grey river, edged 

 with a strip of bright green crops, and here and thei-e 

 a patch of dazzling white sand, led one's eye away 

 above the bank where the desert seemed to have over- 

 flowed, and ])oured forth between the rocks great streams 

 of sand of a deep rich orange colour. A background 

 of pinkish hills, and the pure blue sky above, completed 

 a scheme of colouring difficult to surpass. One night 

 by the light of a brilliant moon all these colours were to 

 be clearly distinguished, even to the pink of the distant 

 rocks and the blvie of the sky, but of such delicacy was 

 the colouring that the whole scene became etherealised. 



Our progress by the river was slow and laboured. 

 Owing to the shallowness of the water, it being the midst 



* Corn's coriv.r, Linn. 



+ Comix xiriptilafiit. Dniid, 



of one of the driest of dry seasons, the steamer grounded 

 and stuck continually, notwithstanding its flat bottom and 

 shallow draught. By dint of much twisting and turning 

 and a vast amount of hard labour on the part of our 

 crew in poling and hauling, as well as in lightening the 

 boat, we were not called upon to wait until the Nile 

 rose before reaching oiu- destination. Judging by their 

 constant and hearty calls for aid from above, one could 

 well believe that the crew ascribed this good fortune to 

 the will of Allah and his Prophet rather than to their 

 own exertions. 



So we jDassed rocky Korosko, Ibrim perched on the 

 top of a high and precipitous clifl', the wonderful rock 

 temple Abu Simbel, and in four days from Assouan 

 arrived at Wady Haifa. 



Once a miserable vdlage, Haifa now boasts of great 

 workshops fitted with all the necessary machinery and 

 appliances to keep in repair, and even to manufacture. 





i>J^>U^ 



r.r-4!^4-^ 



A Siikieli. 



everything connected with a railway, and the new town 

 has been appropriately termed a miniature Ci'ewe. From 

 Haifa the wonderful railway which bridges 230 miles 

 of waterless desert originated, and from Haifa to an ever 

 increasing distance each day, with marvellous regularity 

 during its construction, ran two ti'ains with construction 

 materials, and water and food for the great army of 

 v.'orkers at railhead. In eleven months from its com- 

 mencement all difficulties, and there were many, were 

 overcome, and a railway which the best authorities 

 had dubbed as the idea of a lunatic was com- 

 pleted. The journey from Haifa to Abu Hamed 

 formerly occupied some ten days. It is now possible by 

 this " short cut " across the desert to accomplish it iii 

 about as many hours. Of coiu-se this railway, both as 

 regards permanent way and rolling stock, has vastly 

 improved since the days of the expedition which culmi- 

 nated in the battle of Kerreri and the capture of 

 Omdurman, and it has been extended from the Atbara, 

 its former southern terminus, to the banks of the Blue 

 Nile opposite Khartoum. 



We travelled up in the last so-called tourist train 

 of the season. This train was put together at Haifa, 

 and many of its fittings wei'e made there. It was some- 

 what devoid of cushions and elaborate fittings, which 



