588 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1869, 
in Egypt, three months of it on the Nile itself, and we 
have avoided the chills of winter and had a season of 
great enjoyment and interest. I passed your friend 
Professor Marcet in Nubia, but missed visiting his 
boat, from his sailing under the English flag, but hit 
upon that of Mr. Naville,! whom we saw afterwards 
at Edfou, and were much pleased with. 
Botany on the Nile is nearly nil, yet I collected a 
small suite of specimens, as souvenirs. Returning, we 
had a most uncomfortable passage to Messina... . 
In Naples and in the charming environs we passed a 
fortnight and rather more, and have now had a week 
in Rome. 
We are just now recovering the mild and charm- 
ing weather which we left behind in Egypt. We shall 
stay here, I suppose, only ten days more, make a 
short stay in Florence, also in Venice, visit the Italian 
lakes, and, I think, go to Vienna by way of Inns- 
bruck, to be there the first week in June. All else is 
uncertain, except that we mean to be in Switzerland 
ti Gly. « 
Dr. Gray said he found more botany ina half day in 
the desert than in a week in Egypt! A country cul- 
tivated for five thousand years had no weeds. There 
were long walks and occasional excursions in Nubia 
into the desert when the dahabeah was lying still. 
TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 
Monicu, June 8, 1869. 
... It is hurrying and distracting work, this 
traveling with a pair of nice young ladies, sharp for 
1 Edouard Naville, of Geneva; distinguished Egyptologist ; since 
1883 the representative of the Egyptian Exploration fund. 
