_6th January._—The Haba goes to the east, under the horizon, in the position in which we cast anchor this morning to S.S.W. It seems, therefore, that we shall approach again the firm line of the left old shore, by surprising windings; for the right has been unfaithful. Nothing is to be seen of it except the high bed of the primitive river, or a valley watered by the stream, partly laid on dry ground, over which the Nile flows, from time to time, with its waves, or rolls here and there into it at its pleasure. We proceed with libàhn around the corner mentioned, to N.N.E., but, after a short time, with a sharp wind, to E.S.E., where the river is remarkably contracted. An hour from the left shore is a large lake, wherein are fishermen; close to us a large fish-pond. The stream has, by the choking up and alteration of its bed, left behind numberless such fish-ponds, in a greater or smaller degree. The Icthyophagi only need for the in and out letting of the Nile water, to keep open the canals connected with the stream, so as to have continually an abundance of fish. From E.S.E. we go in a shallow bend again to S.E., where we spread sails. Now, at eight o’clock, again in this circle, to S.W. by W., and we came in this manner closer to the old wood, as I had previously conjectured. The river appears really by this means to wish to keep more to the left old shore; for even the right side of the reeds is here generally higher than the left. It is clear, and the evidence of the eye-sight teaches us, that the shores, in almost all places where old or choked-up water-courses do not run into the land, are remarkably higher than the surface of the earth immediately behind, as is plainly perceived in the stream territory of the _United Nile_, which has been cultivated for thousands of years. The latter especially struck me when, on my return to Egypt, I met with newly dug canals, which were yet without bridges, and their banks so sloping, that I was often obliged to ride up towards the mountains or along their channel. The bed of the canal was always lower up the country, although it lay on an equal line with the mouth of the Nile. This rise in the bed of the stream exactly explains here, as well as in Egypt, the inundations. They form then, in connection with the tropical rains, numberless sloughs, ponds, and lakes, which must collect and completely evaporate in these long basins, were they not artificially diverted by the natives for the purpose of fishing, through incisions in the shore-dams, when the Nile falls.