‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 309 
Slowly and cautiously we proceeded towards one of these 
congregations of many thousands of individuals, examining it 
carefully with the glass, but finding only Pelicans, and none 
of the Flamingoes which we were so intent on pursuing. 
As soon as we had got within five hundred yards the birds 
began to get restless and to stretch out their long necks and 
move their wings. At the word of command four rifles 
astonished them with a morning salute, and this was responded 
to by a great commotion, a vigorous flapping of wings and a 
general rising, the white island changing into a great cloud, 
which cast a perfectly compact shadow on the water. 
Now began a lively dropping fire, which curiously enough 
took no effect. In this sort of shooting, however, the distance 
is enormous, and among the masses of birds which are ap- 
parently so closely packed there are, nevertheless, many gaps 
and interspaces through which a ball can easily pass. Only 
one solitary Pelican floated dead upon the water, and this 
bird, which had been hit in the first volley, was fetched by 
one of the crew, who waded across for it. 
The further we penetrated among the islands the livelier 
grew the scene. Gulls and Terns were tumbling about over 
the water. Myriads of Coots, a few Shovellers, with some 
divers and smaller ducks, which were too far off to be iden- 
tified, were swimming to and fro, and on the islands were 
standing Great Hgrets, Little Egrets, and Grey Herons, 
while the sand-banks swarmed with flocks of various kinds of 
Sandpipers. None of the islands were so attractive as to 
make us halt, and it was not until noon, after the fleet had 
reunited, and all the gentlemen had come on board our daha- 
beeyah to eat the lunch prepared on the cook’s vessel, that we 
sighted a larger island adorned with a white tower. 
This was an old Sheikh’s tomb, the burial-place of a holy 
man of great celebrity at Lake Menzaleh. A narrow channel 
there ran between two islands, and a fisherman’s miserable little 
