576 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1869, 
at the first cataract of the Nile, at ancient Syene, 
or between it and Phile. I think you may like to 
send a part to Don José, for culture in Cuba, where 
it will be a good thing to have. And the rest, let 
Guerrineau try to raise some, that we may have one 
in the conservatory. I shall send, along with heavy 
things, some nuts of the Doum palm, Hyphene 
Thebaica, which branches and is picturesque. That 
and the date palm are the principal trees here. Be- 
sides, there is Acacia Nilotica (the sont) and one 
or two other acacias, and an occasional sycamore. 
Below, a jujube tree was not uncommon, and plenty 
of the fine Acacia (or Albizzia) Lebbek, with its 
great flat pods and large leaflets. But none in Nu- 
bia. Up here the cultivable valley of the Nile is just 
the slope of the banks bared as the river subsides 
after the inundation, making a strip of green crops 
from five feet to five rods wide, —all else desert, 
either rock or sand as the case may be. We came 
twenty-four hours ago within the tropics,—a new 
thing for me, and I thought of Cuba and you. But 
it is just comfortably warm, 70° in the shade as I 
write, — has been 76°,— the nights down to 60° or 
so; just nice and comfortable if you keep out of the 
sun, which, though seemingly not hot, has an over- 
powering effect I never knew at home. Our winds 
are steady from north and northwest, pushing us up 
the river steadily. About sixty miles more, or may be 
seventy, is the second cataract, and our limit. Then 
we turn our faces north again, and descend, making 
our principal stops by the way. For thus far, we have 
stopped only little or briefly, taking only such sight- 
seeing as came in our way or took us little out of it. 
Yet we have had a glance at several of the greatest 
Kd 
