le varies considerably in width, from a quarter of a mile, as in
the deep channel before Cairo, to two miles or more higher up, where
the wide space between its high banks, filled to the brim during high
Nile, has almost the appearance of a sea; but as the river falls it is
studded with islands, many of them of considerable extent, and often
under permanent cultivation. The navigable channel is close under one
bank or other, though the shallow water which covers the shoals gives
the river the appearance of being considerably larger than it really
is. In character the scenery is generally placid, and the smooth
water, shimmering under the warm sun which edges the sand-banks with a
gleaming line of silver, is hardly broken by a ripple. I always think
the river prettiest when the Nile is low and the sand-banks appear. In
the shallows pelicans, ibis, heron, and stork are fishing together
without interfering with each other, while large flights of wild-duck
rise splashing from the stream. Eagles soar aloft, or, with the
vultures, alight upon a sand-bank to dispute the possession of some
carcass with the jackals and the foxes. Water wag-tails flit along the
shore, or in the most friendly manner board your steamer to feed on
the crumbs from your tea-table, while large numbers of gay-plumaged
king-fishers dart in and out from their nests tunnelled far into the
precipitous face of the river-bank.

On either side are the eternal hills, beautiful under any effect of
light.

It is astonishing how infinitely varied the Nile scenery is according
to the time of day. In the early morning, mists often hang upon the
water, and the air is bitterly cold, for these sandy wastes which abut
upon the Nile retain little heat by night. Above the cool green of the
banks the high hills rise mysteriously purple against the sunrise, or
catch the first gleam of gold on their rugged bluffs.

As the sun mounts higher a delicate pink tinge suffuses all, and the
hanging mists are dispersed by the growing heat to form little flecks
of white which float in the deep blue of the sky above you. Meanwhile
the life of the river and the fields has recommenced, and the banks
again become animated, and innumerable Nile boats dot the surface of
the stream.

At midday the landscape is enveloped in a white heat, while the bluffs
and buttresses of the rocks cast deep purple shadows on the sweeping
sand-drifts which lie against their base. It is a drowsy effect of