132 SAM DARLING'S KEMINISCENCES 



their beasts about as similar boys in England do, 

 but they dearly love to put in a thwack when you 

 are least expecting it, and when your donkey is just 

 negotiating ground covered with stones and rocks. 

 We got on decent going for about thirty minutes, 

 and, as the donkeys are perfectly free goers, soon 

 were clear away from their tormentors. We never 

 know what we may not do, but that Mr. Darling 

 and myself should have been ' loping ' along on 

 donkeys in an Egyptian waste, with big granite 

 rocks piled up on this side and that and only two 

 Arab donkey boys within measurable distance, 

 seemed at first thought strange. The rest of the 

 party were out of sight behind us. Mr. Gubbins 

 was coming on by carriage, and others, again, by 

 rail. 



" At last we reached the river, now dammed up 

 to an immense expanse over against Philae, and 

 so, in the boats, when the rest of the party had 

 arrived, we half sailed, half drifted over to the now 

 submerged island ; in boats we even entered the 

 temple; and it is, in a way, pitiful to see how 

 the trees all around have only their heads out of 

 the water, which has been raised upwards of 60 ft. 

 on them. If in any way the plans for the big dam 

 were modified with a view to sparing Philae it is 

 a great pity, for it seems hardly conceivable that 

 PhilaB, as things are, can long continue to exist. 



