29th December.—We sailed quite early this morning, scarcely half an hour, when we found ourself at a place called by the Arabs “Mattrag betal Mutfa,” or “Place of Cannons,” because, in the former expedition, a cannon was lost here in the water. Here we were to rest some days, in order to make immense astronomical calculations, which may be, truly, a complicated labour for the great “Ingenia.” A shooting excursion after the numerous birds was much more pleasant. The left shore was here four feet high, and I believe that the water of the Nile has only stood in the still green and marshy low hollows which, like rivulets, run parallel to the stream. What we looked upon at a distance as a forest (called Haba), turns out to be misery itself for a German. In vain we seek shade here, where the half dried-up trees, mostly dwarfs, always stand some hundred paces from one another. Here also the long, thick-stalked grass was burnt away, and a young grass, which otherwise would have wanted air, now sprouted in plenty from the earth. The trees are, for the most part, a species of mimosas, called talle. I had only gone about on the shore a few paces, when I came to the full conviction that there must be capital shooting here. I returned, therefore, on board, but there was neither gun nor servant to be seen. They had gone shooting, to spare me the trouble of exerting myself. One after the other came back, and brought birds, but, whilst I was looking at them, they were off again. I could not be angry, much as I might have wished to be. Among the turtle-doves are found even the Egyptian (Columba Ægypt), called gimri; but still more the larger _gumri_ (C. risoria, Linn.; also C. collaris, Hemp and Ehrbg). The turtle-doves with the long tail and black stomacher (C. caprensis), seem not to present themselves here. A brownish eagle, with a white head (Falco vocifer), a white and dark grey ibis (I. æthiop and I. Hagedash); a crane, with black velvet crest and golden nimbus, grue royale (Grus pavonius), appeared to be the chief among the birds found here. The white birds sitting upon the backs of the elephants, and fishing there on dry land, are small herons, and exactly similar to the Ardea Coromandelica, with the exception of the yellow bill and feet.