THE NILE TO THE SECOND CATARACT.

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"That is a difficult question to answer," was the Doctor's reply, "but I will try to meet it. The second cataract is much like the first, and is a succession of rapids rather than a fall. It is two hundred and forty miles. from Assouan to Wady Halfa, a village at the second cataract, and the point where nearly all tourists who go beyond here turn back. On the way thither you pass a few ruined temples and other remains of ancient Egypt; but there are none of great importance, with the exception of Abou Simbel, which ranks next after the pyramids and the temples of

Thebes. There are two temples there hewn in the solid rock, and dating from the time of Rameses the Great. A good deal of the history of that monarch has been gathered from the sculptures in these temples, and the door-way of the principal one of them is guarded by a couple of enor mous statues that recall the Sitting Colossi of Thebes. They have been pronounced the finest statues of their size in all Egypt, and certainly I do not know of any that can rival them in grandeur and beauty.

"These statues were formed by cutting away the solid rock, just as the statues of the temples of Ellora, in India, were made. Like most of the royal statues of Egypt, they represent the king seated on his throne. They are partly covered with the sand that has drifted about them, and sometimes little more than the heads of the figures are visible. They are said to be sixty-six feet high without their pedestals. A friend of

mine measured the head of one of them, and gave me the following notes: Length of the nose, 3 feet 5 inches; height of the forehead, 28 inches; width of the mouth, 8 feet; length of the ear, 3 feet.

"The head of the statue is twelve feet high, without including the cap or crown that covers it. Compare these figures with the measurements of the broken figure of Rameses at the Memnonium, and you will realize the grandeur of the work.

"The second cataract is more difficult of passage than the first, and can only be accomplished when the Nile is at its full height. Above it the river makes a wide bend, and, as the navigation is difficult, the land route to the Upper Nile is preferable. Travellers leave the Nile at

Korosko, nearly a hundred miles below Wady Halfa, and cross the desert to Khartoom. It is a journey of eight days by camels, and there is only one oasis on the route where water can be procured. Khartoom is a town of considerable size-about twenty thousand inhabitants—and has a curiously mixed population of Egyptians, Nubians, Turks, Arabs, and half a dozen other races and tribes. It has a fine trade in ivory, ostrich feathers, and other products of Central Africa, and formerly was the centre of the slave-trade between Egypt and the regions to the south. The situation is said to be quite picturesque, as it is on the angle between the Blue and White Nile, and the boats from both these rivers lie at its banks.

"From Khartoom there is good navigation on the Nile for a long distance, till the Sudd, or bank of reeds, is reached. The river is blocked by a great mass of aquatic plants, which have drifted down and accumulated so that they cover several miles of the course of the stream. Imagine a small brook in which a load of hay has been overturned, and you have an idea of what the Sudd is like.

"Beyond the Sudd the principal town is Gondokoro, in Abyssinia, and as we go farther up the Nile we enter the countries of the savage rulers of Central Africa. You can read about them in the works of Livingstone, Stanley, and other travellers who have gone there, and then-"

"Dinner is ready!" said one of the stewards, and the description of Africa by the Doctor was indefinitely postponed.

The return voyage to Cairo was quickly made, as the steamer halted but a few times, and then only briefly, at some of the principal points. There was no time for sight-seeing, as all of the visits to temples and tombs were planned for the upward journey. The principal incidents of the trip were a few slight quarrels among the passengers, growing out of the general lack of something to do, and a glimpse of a crocodile. Everybody had been on the lookout for crocodiles during the voyage up the river, but none had been seen. The presence of these inhabitants of the Nile had been nearly forgotten, when suddenly one afternoon somebody on deck called out,

"Crocodile!"

Instantly there was a rush from seats and lounging places, and those who happened to be in the cabin came out as though a shell had exploded among them. Some ran one way and some another, and several went to the wrong side of the boat.

The crocodile was lying on a sand-bank two hundred yards or more

FIRST VIEW OF A CROCODILE.

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from the course of the steamer. He was evidently enjoying a sun-bath when disturbed by the sound of the paddle-wheels, and concluded that the wisest plan for him to follow was to drop into the water.

While he remained quiet he could easily have been mistaken for a blackened log, but as soon as he was in motion there was no doubt on the subject. Creeping rather than walking, he was soon at the edge of the water, and, without pausing to see what it was that disturbed him, he disappeared beneath the surface of the river.

The Doctor told the boys that many persons made the tour of the

Nile nowadays without getting a single glimpse of a crocodile below the first cataract. Above Assouan crocodiles are more frequent, and