t once to the Austrian consulate, where this
difficulty was usually removed. This was also the case here. The
consul immediately sent to inquire how I could best get to Cairo,
and offered me a room in his house in the mean time. A ship was
soon found, for Atfe is a harbour of some importance. The canal
joins the Nile at this place; and as larger vessels are used on the
stream itself, all goods are transhipped here, so that barques are
continually starting for Alexandria and Cairo. In a few hours I was
obliged to re-embark, and had only time to provide myself with
provisions and a supply of water, and to partake of a sumptuous
dinner at the consul's, whose hospitality was doubly grateful to me
as I had fasted the previous day. The chief compartment of the
cabin had been engaged for me, at an expense of 100 piastres. On
embarking, however, I found that this place had been so filled with
goods, that hardly a vacant space remained for the poor occupant. I
at once hastened back to the consulate and complained of the
captain, whereupon the consul sent for that worthy and desired him
to clear my cabin, and to refrain from annoying me during the
voyage, if he wished to be paid on our arrival at Cairo. This
command was strictly obeyed, and until we reached our destination I
was left in undisturbed possession of my berth. At two in the
afternoon I once more set sail alone in the company of Arabs and
Bedouins.

I would counsel any one who can only make this journey to Cairo once
in his lifetime to do it at the end of August or the beginning of
September. A more lovely picture, and one more peculiar in its
character, can scarcely be imagined. In many places the plain is
covered as far as the eye can trace by the Nile-sea (it can scarcely
be called river in its immense expanse), and every where little
islands are seen rising from the waters, covered with villages
surrounded by date-palms, and other trees, while in the background
the high-masted boats, with their pyramidal sails, are gliding to
and fro. Numbers of sheep, goats, and poultry cover the hills, and
near the shore the heads of the dark-grey buffaloes, which are here
found in large herds, peer forth from the water. These creatures
are fond of immersing their bodies in the cool flood, where they
stand gazing at the passing ships. Here and there little
plantations of twenty to thirty trees are seen, which appear, as the
ground is completely overflowed, to be