CHAP. XI. THE CATARACTS AND NUBIA. 1 17 



Another section is taken in latitude 'i8° from 

 Gebel E' Zayt, on the Red Sea, to Gebel Aboo 

 Fayda on the Nile. * 



The last of those in the Eastern desert, in lati- 

 tude ^7° t, crosses the great range of the Ummum- 

 fayah, which is about 5000 feet high. 



From a comparison of which it appears that this 

 desert has one general character in its levels from 

 the Nile to the Red Sea. 



A little above Esneh, about latitude 25° 10', the 

 sandstones approach the Nile on the East bank ; 

 a Httle farther South they cross the river, near 

 Edfoo, whence they continue on either bank ; 

 and at Silsilis are the quarries from which the 

 sandstone used in the temples of Egypt was 

 taken. Fourteen miles above Ombos, and on the 

 eastern bank, the granites appear ; and at Esouan, 

 14 miles farther S., they cross the river. Amidst 

 these are the cataracts, a succession of rapids, of 

 which no single fall is more than about five feet. 



In Nubia, the valley is very narrow ; the rocks 

 of the eastern and western mountains often coming- 

 close to the river, and leaving little or no space 

 for the deposit of alluvium : in other places on the 

 Libyan side, the sand covers the whole level space 

 between the hills and the bank ; and the character 

 of the country between the first and second cataract 

 is totally different from Egypt. The river about 

 Kalabshe rises between 30 and 40 feet durinaf the 

 inundation ; and after it has subsided, in February, 



* Plate 18. No. lU. f No. J I. 



I 3 



