green, and coarse long grass was abundant.  At sunrise of the sixth day of the moon we again mounted, and set forward in a direction nearly East.  Our way lay over low rocky hills, gravelly or sandy plains, and sometimes through valleys containing plenty of coarse grass and acacia trees; but no water is to be found above ground at this season, though it probably might be obtained by sinking wells in some of these valleys.  We halted at noon, and in two hours after again mounted, and marched till midnight.  Our road lay through a country resembling that we had passed the day before.  On the morrow morning, a little after day-light, we proceeded on our journey, and at noon halted at the only well of water we found on our route.  It lies near two high hills of black granite.  The water was yellow and dirty, and was almost rejected by the thirsty camels.  By the middle of the afternoon we were again on horseback, and marched till midnight, when some of the camels dropping and dying, and others giving out, the Selictar found himself obliged to order a halt for the rest of the night.  It was his intention to have marched till morning, by which time our guides told us that we should arrive at the river.  We threw ourselves on the ground to sleep a few hours, but by sunrise we were called to mount and away.  We proceeded till about noon, when we came in view of the beneficent river, whose beauty and value cannot be duly appreciated by any who have not voyaged in the deserts through which it holds its course.  It was on the eighth of the moon when we arrived on its borders.  I had expected that our toilsome forced march would end here, and had promised myself some repose, which I greatly needed, as I had suffered much from the heat of the sun, which had burned the skin off my face;—­from fatigue and want of sleep;—­from hunger, as we had barely time to prepare a little rice and bread once in twenty-four hours;—­and from the exasperation of my ophthalmia, which had never entirely quitted me since I was attacked by it at Wady Halfa, on the second cataract.  The Selictar, however, did not indulge us with more than half a day’s and one night’s repose on the bank of the river, which we found well cultivated by the inhabitants of numerous villages in sight.  On the morning of the ninth day of the moon, we were again called to proceed.  For this day our march lay near the bank of the river, and through and by fine fields of barley, cotton, and wheat.  The day after, our route lay over a narrow space of rocky land, lying between the river and the hills of the desert.  We saw this day but a few cultivated spots.  On the 11th we commenced our march before sunrise, animated by the information that we should be at the Pasha’s camp by noon or the middle of the afternoon.  Our road lay this day on the edge of the Desert, just where it touches the cultivable soil deposited by the Nile, which is indicative of the point to which the inundations of the river extend in this country.