SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 103 
must bring them down; but they have rather a tenacious 
grasp of the ground. I consider them very bad trees for 
birds. The wood is not of much use. The inhabitants of 
ancient Syene take a six-foot log of it, and on that venture 
to come down the cataract of El Bab. We purchased logs 
of them, and after a good deal of practising, one of my com- 
panions attained some proficiency in this art of paddling. 
Some time ago a young Englishman was so excessively 
foolhardy as to attempt the cataract, which no one buta 
native can-safely do: his rashness cost him his life. 
In Upper Egypt the Date Palm gives place to the Dhom, 
the tree from which vegetable ivory is obtained. The fruit 
grows in clusters, and is about the size of a large apple. 
Those I examined were hard and brown. Having with 
considerable difficulty cut one open, I found the vegetable 
ivory to be the core. There is also a third species of Palm 
called the Dourra, which is hardier and more generally 
distributed than the Dhom. 
