to some service or other, but that, as soon as he had them, I should receive what I needed.  I was consequently obliged to embark in a boat to accompany the march of the camp as, without camels to carry my tent and baggage, I could not accompany it by land.  On the 25th, all the boats followed the departure of the troops; the wind was ahead, and the direction of the river the same as repeatedly before mentioned.  We proceeded slowly by the cordel.  This circumstance gave me an opportunity of visiting the Pyramids which I have mentioned as in view from Meroe.  They stand about half a mile from the right hand bank of the river.  I counted twenty-seven, none of them perfect, and most of them in ruins; the greater part of them are built of stone, and are evidently much more ancient than those of Meroe.

The largest is probably more than a hundred feet square, and something more in height.  It presents a singularity in its construction worthy of notice.  It is a pyramid within a pyramid; i.e. the inner pyramid has been cased over by a larger one; one of its sides being in ruins makes this peculiarity visible.  By climbing up the ruined side, it is easy to reach its summit.  No remains of a city or any traces of temples are visible in the immediate vicinity of this place, which is called by the natives “Turboot.”

On the 23d we came in view of the lower end of the rapids of the Third Cataract; those hereabouts are called “the rapids of Oula” We were obliged to consume thirty-nine days in getting as far as the island of Kendi, (which is not above fifty miles from Meroe.) As the direction of the river continued almost the same, coming from about the north-east, and the wind being almost invariably ahead, the difficulties attending advancing the boats by the cordel were very great, as the river here is spotted by an infinity of islands and rocks.  In some of the passages where the water was deep, the current was as swift as a mill-sluice, which made it necessary to employ the crews of perhaps twenty boats to drag up one at a time.  In other passages, where the water was very shallow, it was sometimes necessary to drag the boats by main force over the stones at the bottom.  The camp of the Pasha remained during all this time about eight hours march above Meroe, on the right bank of the river, waiting till the boats should have passed the rapids.  No military movements took place, except detaching the Divan Effendi with four hundred cavalry, to join the detachment already in Berber, where all was quiet and friendly.  The country on the rapids of the Third Cataract is sterile, being composed, for the most part, of black granite and sand, excepting some of the islands, which contained good ground, and a few spots on the shores, where the floods of the river had deposited some fertile soil.  The rocks by the shore presented indications which proved that the river had risen in some of its floods about twenty feet above its present level.  Ostriches