1 54 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



tract of country appears. The three exploring expeditions 

 sent by the Egyptian government, (one in November 1830 

 from Chartum to the confluence of the Blue and the White 

 Nile, under the command of Selim Bimbashi ; another in 

 the autumn of 1840, which was accompanied by the French 

 engineers Arnaud, Sabatier, and Thibaud ; and a third in 

 August 1841), first unveiled the high mountains which, 

 between the parallels of 6 4, and probably still farther 

 to the south, run at first from west to east, arid after- 

 wards from north-west to south-east, and -approach the 

 left bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad. The second of Mehemed 

 Ali's expeditions first saw the mountain chain, according 

 to Werne's account, in lat. 1 ] J, where Gebel Abul and 

 Gebel Kutak rise to 3400 (3623 Eng.) feet. The high 

 land continued and approached nearer to the river more 

 to the south, between 4| lat., to the parallel of the 

 island of Tschenker in 4 4', where the expedition of 

 Commander Selim and Eeizulla Effendi terminated. The 

 shallow river makes its way between rocks, and detached 

 mountains rise again in the country of Ban to 3000 (3197 

 Eng.) feet. These probably belong to the Mountains of 

 the Moon as represented in our most recent maps, although 

 they are not indeed mountains covered with perpetual snow 

 such as Ptolemy had described (lib. iv. cap. 9). The 

 limit of perpetual snow in these latitudes would not certainly 

 be found below an elevation of 14500 (15450 Eng.) feet. 

 Perhaps Ptolemy transferred to the country of the sources 

 of the White Nile the knowledge which he may have had 

 of the high mountains of Habesch, which are nearer to 



