4 EGYPT AND PALESTINE. 



descent is reached, and the view of Cairo and the valley 

 of the Nile bursts upon the eyes with an almost magical 

 suddenness. The immediate foreground is formed by 

 the quarried heights of Djebel Mokattam, in the centre 

 of the picture rise the taper minarets of the mosque 

 of the citadel, in a valley on its right are the tombs 

 of the Memlooks, a deserted town of the dead, and the 

 vast modem city spreads itself out in the plain below. 

 In the centre of the broad bluish-green ribbon of fertile 

 land, dotted with clusters of pyramids, the Nile itself 

 can be traced to the commencement of the Delta, while 

 beyond, on the west, the yellow sands of the desert 

 mark the limits of its fertilising inundation. 



At Cairo we were fortunate in falling in with some 

 pleasant Americans, who were making up a party to hire 

 a steamboat for a trip up the river. They asked us to 

 join them, and although the Nile had not formed part 

 of our programme, the opportunity was too good to be 

 lost, and we gladly accepted the offer. 



Although our company consisted of eleven Americans 

 and only four Englishmen, the majority were not at all 

 disposed to abuse their power, and we gave an example of 

 unbroken harmony to the other steamers going up the 

 river at the same time. Indeed, I believe that on this 

 account, as well as from our being so fortunate as to carry 

 with us some prett}^ and lively Transatlantic cousins, we 

 were an object of envy and heartburning to most of the 

 boats we met. 



Time could not hang heavy on the hands of those who, 

 when their admiration was no longer called forth by ' the 

 mysteriovis type of beauty' peculiar to the broken-nosed 

 sisterhood of Sphinxes, could turn their eyes on the 

 fresher charms which the Far West had sent to compete 

 with the stony loveliness of the East. On February 14th 



