40 
MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
cember, he proceeded up the Nile in a canja, which 
was to carry him to Furshoot, the residence of 
Hainan, Sheik of Upper Egypt. As he passed 
along, he was gratified with a sight of the pyra- 
mids, and surveyed with delight the picturesque 
sceuery of that ancient country. The situation of 
Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, excited his 
attention, and he entered keenly into the conflicting 
opinions respecting its position, as maintained by 
Shaw, Pococke, Niebuhr, and others; but it is 
needless for us to touch upon that controversy, 
which will likely remain for ever a topic of dispute, 
as the reader perhaps knows that not a vestige of 
Memphis has existed for many centuries. 
The ruinous villages and Arab encampments on 
the margin of the river, gave life and variety to the 
scene. Palm trees studded the green narrow valley, 
and behind them rose the barren hills of a whitish 
sandy colour, and completely destitute of all vege- 
tation. At Rhoda, Bruce saw the magnificent ruins 
of the ancient city Antinous, built by Adrian. In 
some parts of the valley the ground was sown from 
the foot of the mountains to the waters edge, the 
grain being merely thrown, after the river has sub- 
sided, upon the mud, without any preparation of the 
plough. In the progress of his voyage, Bruce 
visited Girge, Dendera, Furshoot, Thebes, Luxor, 
Kamac, and other places memorable for their stu- 
pendous ruins, which have since his time been 
depicted and described by a hundred subsequent 
travellers ; of many of these he took sketches, at the 
