A TRIP TO "EGYPT. 
101 
bill, then passed two ancient Arabian and the English cemeteries. 
We then took the road to the left,, by the telegraph wires which go 
to Wadvhalfa, and in a short time reached the ancient 
Granite Quarries of Syene. 
Here we saw an obelisk cut by the ancients on its three sides, but 
still attached on the bottom, 80ft. long. Their custom seems to 
have been to drive dry wood wedges, and then wet them, to split 
the granite; take it on rollers to the water’s edge, and on barges 
down the river, to the various temples. 
Leaving here, the road passes through a wilderness, unearthly, 
fantastic, and almost impish. Nothing but sand and granite to 
arrest the eye in any direction. I counted eight strata of granite, 
composing the hills on the side of the valley, on the top of which 
the huge solitary blocks left alone on the ridge looked ominous, 
being apparently ready to topple over. The granite is mostly red, 
but the rock was almost black in places. The valley itself was 
quite barren of life, neither animal nor vegetable being able to 
exist there. 
At the village of Shellal, the terminus of the railway here, we 
took boats and sailed over the Nile to the 
Island of Phil^e, 
where we spent several enjoyable hours in visiting its temples, with 
their massive propylons and richly-carved columns, the paintings on 
some of which have retained their colours to the present day. 
The Temple of Isis 
is the finest on the island; it was founded by Ptolemy II., and 
enlarged by his successors and their Roman Conquerors. The three 
gods here worshipped were Osiris, the incarnate god and future 
judge ; Isis, his consort, the loveliest of Egyptians ; and Horus, their 
son, the conqueror of Typlion. Here we saw two species of small blue 
butterflies with tails to their wings, besides a number of lizards, 
also a number of interesting trees, flowers, and grasses. After 
luncheon in the temple known as “Pharaoh’s Bed,” we left by 
boat for the mud village of Mahatta. Here we went on shore, and 
walked to the top of the 
First Cataract, 
and, as the granite rocks rise perpendicularly, we had a grand view 
May, 1893. 
