‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 233 
Kingfishers, those true Egyptian birds, while, scared by the 
train, a wolf scurries across the fields, and hawks, vultures, 
and myriads of kites are cruising round the villages. 
Varied and gorgeous in colour, full of life, rich in human 
interests, remarkable in its fauna, and swathed in the haze of 
the noontide heat—’tis thus old Lower Egypt presents itself 
to the traveller. 
It was in the neighbourhood of Cairo, which we reached 
on the 19th, that we had our first shooting-excursion. 
After a hasty lunch some of us went out with Baron 
Saurma. The town had first to be traversed, so we crossed 
the canal and drove through the broad streets of the European 
part of the city, passing the pretty houses and luxuriant 
gardens of the wealthier inhabitants, and getting a distant 
glimpse of the entrance to the Arab quarter. The streets 
were very amusing with their wild confusion of European 
carriages, wretched cabs, pack and saddle asses, mules, camels, 
rich and poor, beggars and showy Orientals, true believers 
and semi-European Levantines, and added to all this a great 
throng of real western folk—tourists and the like. Passing 
Kasr-el-Nil and driving over the bridge, we soon reached the 
embankments and high avenues which run through the large 
gardens outside the town, and came to some extensive sugar- 
cane plantations near Tassum Pasha’s palace, which were 
surrounded by canals and half-flooded fields. In one of these 
plantations we intended to hunt. 
Prince Taxis and Baron Saurma’s brother were awaiting 
us, so the guns were at once posted and the dogs uncoupled. 
For a long time the dachshunds seemed to find no scent, 
but at last they began to hunt and approached the edgé of 
the field, giving tongue loudly ; but unfortunately the wolf 
broke from the cover at an unguarded point, so we went off 
to another cane-field which lay beyond a broad canal. The 
dogs were again let loose, but we soon had to take them up, 
