I was not in Egypt during the time of the inundation; I can, therefore, only repeat on the authority of others, that for the first few days it has a green tint. This is supposed to be caused by the first rush of the descending torrents sweeping off a great deal of stagnant water from the distant interior of Darfour. This green Nile is held to be unwholesome, and the natives prepare themselves for it by storing up, in anticipation, what water they will require for these few days. The green is succeeded by a red tint. This is caused by the surface washing of districts where the soil is red. The red water, though heavily charged with soil, is not unwholesome. With respect to the amount of red in the colour of the water of the inundation, I found it stated in a work which is sometimes quoted as an authority on Egyptian subjects, that it is so great that the water might be mistaken for blood. This I do not understand, as the soil this water leaves behind has in its colour no trace of red. By the time the water of the inundation reaches the Delta, it has got rid of the greater part of its impurities. This causes the rise of the land in the Delta to be far slower than in Upper Egypt. In winter, when the inundation has completely subsided, the water, though still charged with mud, in which, however, there is no trace of red, is pleasant to drink, and quite innocuous. The old Egyptians represented in their wall-paintings these three conditions of the river by green, red, and blue water. For myriads of years this mighty river has been bringing down from the highlands of Abyssinia and Central Africa its freight of fertile soil, the sole means of life, and of all that embellished life, to those who invented letters, and built Karnak. It is still as bountiful as ever it was of old to the people who now dwell upon its banks; but to what poor account do they turn its bounty! How great is the contrast between the wretchedness this bounty now maintains, and the splendour, the wealth, the arts, the intellectual and moral life it maintained four and five thousand years ago! The Egyptians have a saying, with which, I think, most of those who have travelled in Egypt will agree, that he who has once drunk the water of the Nile will wish to drink it again. CHAPTER II. HOW IN EGYPT NATURE AFFECTED MAN. Continuo has leges, æternaque fœdera certis Imposuit natura locis, quo tempore primum Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem.—VIRGIL.