I. 
EGYPT 35 
be forgotten. We had often read accounts of chap. 
dangerous surf, in books of voyages, but enter- 
tained no notion in any degree adequate to the 
horrors which mariners encounter in such a 
situation ; nor is there any instance known of a 
more frightful surf than this river sometimes 
exhibits, by its junction with the Mediterranean. 
No sot^ner had we gained a certain point, or 
tongue of land, advancing from the eastern 
shore of the river to^vards the north-west, thaa 
a general shout from the Arabs announced that 
every danger was over : — presently we sailed 
as serenely along as upon the calmest surface 
of any lake. The distance of the mouth of the 
Nile from the station of the British armament is 
considerable; but while we remained at anchor 
in the Bay of Aboukir, we could perceive the 
ships stationed near to the Boccaz; and in like 
manner we here observed the masts of the fleet 
in the bay. 
As we entered the Nile, we were amused by 
seeing an Arab fishing with the sort of net 
called in England a casting-net : this, without 
any difference either in shape, size, or mate- 
rials, he was throwing exactly after our manner, 
which may be urged to prove the antiquity of 
this mode of fishing. Pelicans appeared in great 
D 2 
