The next division above Cairo goes to Asyut, which is two or three hundred miles farther south. Then comes the road from Asyut to Luxor, ending with the narrow-gauge line from Luxor to Aswan. These divisions are through the narrow part of the Nile valley, with the desert in sight all the time. The river winds this way and that, but the railroad is comparatively straight, and is often far off from the river amid the sand and rocks. Such parts of the line are uncomfortable going. At times the sands are blinding, the dust fills the cars, and our eyes smart. These discomforts are somewhat less in the first-class cars. All of them have shutters and double windows to keep out the dust, and the inner window panes are of smoked glass to lessen the glare. With the shutters up it is almost dark and when both windows are down the interior has the appearance of twilight. When clear glass alone is used the rays are blinding and the sun comes through with such strength that it is not safe to have it strike the back of one’s neck. In addition to the double windows and shutters there are wooden hoods over the car windows, so that the direct rays of the sun may not shine in. The cars have also double roofs, and the doors have windows of smoked glass. There is so much dust that it comes in when everything is shut tight, and the porter has to sweep up every hour. I found the conditions even worse in the Nubian Desert, which I crossed on the railroad from Wady Haifa, where I left the steamer _Ibis_, to Berber. That region is about the dreariest and most desolate on earth. It is all sand and rocks, with here and there a low barren mountain. The Nubians themselves call it “the stone belly,” and the name is well chosen. The road through Nubia is a part of the Sudan military railway that extends from Wady Halfa to Khartum. It is one of the iron gateways to the Sudan, the other being the railway which the British have built from Atbara to Port Sudan and Suakim on the Red Sea. The military line is almost as long as from New York to Detroit and the Port Sudan line from the Red Sea to Atbara, where it connects with the military line, is less than half that length. The Port Sudan road vies with the military railways in being one of the dirtiest railroads ever constructed. Its whole route is across the Nubian Desert. There is no vegetation at all between Atbara and the Red Sea until within about nine miles of the coast, and then only a scanty growth of thorn bush and scrub that feeds small flocks of camels and sheep. This Red Sea road was opened about 1905. Since then it has been carrying a large part of the trade of the Sudan. Mohammedan pilgrims from Central Africa and the Lower Nile valley use it on their way to and from Mecca, and occasionally tourists come to Khartum via the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and this railroad.