precious stone, perchance a bit of broken
glass--but bend our eyes more steadfastly to the future, the centuries
unborn, the inevitable, though not yet created infinite.

Edfou is situated at a little distance inland on the western bank of the
Nile. As usual, the land in the neighbourhood of the river is high in
comparison with that which is beyond--that is to say, there is a
continual descending slope to the edge of the desert, where at this time
of year there is, as it were, a succession of large ponds,
water-channels, and marshes. It is impossible to reach the desert except
by a long, elevated, tortuous dike, which begins near the town and
terminates near the foot of a spur of the Libyan chain, some three or
four miles distant. By the aid of the telescope we could distinguish in
the niches of the rock a variety of dark spots resembling the entrances
of grottos; and, hearing that others had made the same observation,
though without undertaking the fatigue of a visit, we determined to set
out next morning, and combine a little sporting with antiquity-hunting.

Though the sun was not very high, it was sufficiently warm when we
started, and we had good reason for anticipating a broiling ride. At
this point there is not an atom of shade, not the semblance of a tree
between the river and the stony desert. All the palm-groves cluster
round the town of Edfou and the villages north and south. We were soon
upon the dusty dike, which, as we proceeded, seemed to lift us higher
and higher above the level plain, half bright-green, half sheeted with
water, that lay in death-like repose, and reflected the sun's rays like
a burnished mirror. It soon appeared that our anticipations of good
sport were not to be disappointed: on all sides, as far as the eye could
reach, as well as near at hand in the pools at the base of the _gisr_ or
dike, appeared innumerable birds, principally aquatic. Large flocks of
paddy-birds, often called the white ibis, speckled the green of the
fields; enormous pelicans stood hanging their enormous beaks, as if in
drowsy contemplation, over distant pools; storks and herons, single, or
arranged, as it were, in military array, accompanied them; and
prodigious masses of white birds glittered in the sun on the verge of
the marshy plain. Then the water was alive with cormorants, geese,
ducks, divers, teal, coot, that swam about in amazing numbers, or,
startled at the slightest noise, flew generally at a cautious d