le, 
aD FES 
gi 
Being 
KT. 58.] TO JOHN TORREY. 579 
Nubia is very different from Egypt, picturesque 
rocky ranges always near the river and broken into 
peaks and pyramids, and all desert except the narrow 
selvage reclaimed by irrigation with sakias; here the 
vegetation (barley, peas, beans, and lupines) intensely 
green by the contrast with yellow sand or light brown 
sandstone. 
January 23, before reaching Korosko (whence cara- 
vans to Dongola; visited their camps, very wild Arabs 
and blacks, and very disagreeable white traders, 
Greeks, probably, with villainous faces) saw our first 
crocodile, and sent two shots at once at him, but the 
huge fellow flounced off the sand bank into the river, 
probably not much hurt. 
January 24, first met with chameleons; got three 
or four from the boys, but finally kept only one, which 
we still have here at Cairo—a lovely little brute whose 
name is Billy, and a great pet; a great diversion to 
watch his change of hues, and especially to see him 
eatch flies by darting out his slender, india-rubber-like 
tongue to the length of several inches (nearly that of 
his whole body when the fly was far enough off), and 
with wonderful quickness and certainty. Service in 
the afternoon, with Church’s last sermon, and sorry 
we were to have reached the end of them. 
But I shall never have done with our journey at 
this rate, and shall give you not the least idea of it 
after this fashion ; how some days we sailed on with 
fair winds, which is very cheerful; some we tracked, 
and then we were much on shore and mingled with 
the people ; and often strong head winds kept us fast 
at the bank, sometimes for two or three days, which 
grew tedious. Well, on the 27th we came to the 
great attraction of the upper Nile, Abou-Simbel; but 
