390 THE BANKS OF THE NILE AT EL EIS. 
three hours' row from Jubl Musa ; and the object last 
seen before arriving at Khartoom is Jubl Aolee, so 
called because it is the first hill observed when ascend- 
ing the White Nile from its junction with the Blue. It 
is not above a quarter of a mile from the right bank, 
and rises two hundred and fifty feet in a barren mass 
of rock, which sends a spur down to the brink of the 
river and crosses it in a N.W. direction, showing one 
small peak in the stream. The country is finely varied 
about this hill ; the verdure of the shore recedes under 
small acacias, or the bush euphorbia dots the streaks 
of white sand. 
The banks of the Nile at El Eis shelve gradually 
into the water : the soil is so rich from the quantity 
of floating sediment brought down by the White Nile, 
that it was no uncommon occurrence to see the goats, 
which had gone to nibble the short sweet grass and 
drink the stream, sink up to the knees in the soil, 
and remain there bleating, quite unable to extricate 
themselves. Beyond this green line the soil becomes 
cracked, and strewn with several species of shells, 
some of which we had seen in the interior. Drifting 
sand, conveyed by the north winds, spread itself over 
the rest of the shore, and there the walking is firm, 
and forms the highway for Arabs proceeding upon 
ambling donkeys to or from their capital of Khartoom. 
A curious line of sand-hills margins the river almost 
the whole way between El Eis and Jubl Aolee. There 
are none upon the left bank. It is naturally an abrupt 
wall eight feet high in the alluvium of the country, 
and these violent north winds, bringing the sand of 
the desert with them, have given it the appearance of 
sand hillocks ; at Gutcena, this is particularly obser- 
