l872 IN EGYPT 397 



Sir John Hay ensured him a most hospitable welcome, 

 though continual rain spoiled his excursions. On the 21st 

 he returned to Gibraltar, leaving three days later in the 

 Nyanza for Alexandria, which was reached on February i. 

 At that " muddy hole " he landed in pouring rain, and it 

 was not till he reached Cairo the following day that he at 

 last got into his longed-for sunshine. 



Seeing that three of his eight weeks had been spent in 

 merely getting to sunshine, his wife and doctor conspired to 

 apply for a third month of leave, which was immediately 

 granted, so that he now had time to go up the Nile as far 

 as Assouan in that most restful of conveyances, a dahabiah. 



Cairo more than answered his expectations. He stayed 

 here till the 13th, making several excursions in company 

 with Sir W. Gregory, notably to Boulak Museum, where 

 he particularly notes the " man with ape" from Memphis; 

 and, of course, the pyramids, of which he remarks that 

 Cephren's is cased at the top with limestone, not granite. 

 His note-book and sketch-book show that he was equally 

 interested in archaeology, in the landscape and scenes of 

 everyday life, and in the peculiar geographical and geologi- 

 cal features of the country. His first impression of the 

 Delta was its resemblance to Belgium and Lincolnshire. 

 He has sections and descriptions of the Mokatta hill, and 

 the windmill mound, with a general panorama of the sur- 

 rounding country and an explanation of it. He remarks at 

 Memphis how the unburnt brick of which the mounds are 

 made up had in many places become remanie into a strati- 

 fied deposit — distinguishable from Nile mud chiefly by the 

 pottery fragments — and notes the bearing of this fact on 

 the Cairo mounds. It is the same on his trip up the Nile ; 

 he jots down the geology whenever opportunity offered ; 

 remarks, as indication of the former height of the river, a 

 high mud-bank beyond Edfou, and near Assouan a pot- 

 hole in the granite fifty feet above the present level. Here 

 is a detailed description of the tomb of Aahmes; there a 

 river-scene beside the pyramid of Meidum ; or vivid sketches 

 of vulture and jackal at a meal in the desert, the jackal in 

 possession of the carcass, the vulture impatiently waiting 



