At three o’clock in the afternoon, we continue to sail towards the South in this immeasurable tract of water. On the right and left are partly grass islands, and partly reedy marshes, which join on to the shore, and must, when the water is higher, before the overflowed vegetation has yet made its way to the surface, form a regular long lake or gigantic stream. After four o’clock we landed on the right shore, where the white lotus was distinguished in the pools amongst the trees, with far larger flowers than is the case where neither shrub nor tree shelters it from the sun. The blue lotus (_Nymphæa cærulea_) called Loss by the Nubas and Baràbras, appears no longer here. On the left shore the smoke of signal-fires, certainly the most ancient kind of telegraph, ascended on all sides. At six o’clock we sailed again, and halted at a quarter past ten, just as the moon went down. A soldier plunged into the water and sank as he was about to touch land, probably seized by a crocodile. At sun-rise 18°, noon 26°, evening 24°, and after midnight, in the open air, 17° Reaumur. _3rd December._—Half an hour before sun-rise we proceeded, with a due North wind, towards the South. It was sensibly cold, though we had 16 degrees of Reaumur. Low and marshy land again at the side,—partly islands before the shores, properly speaking, the elevation of which was scarcely perceptible on the left side of the river. We had seen yesterday and the day before a few solitary tamarinds. Now they were very abundant, and the various shades of light and dark green of these beautiful trees, with their luxuriant foliage, cause a delightful sensation. Their fruit, so grateful in these parts, with its agreeable tartness, the first and last means of support of the Ethiopians, is called in the land of Sudàn, Aradepp; but in Egypt, Tammer-el Hendi (fruit of India); which seems to indicate no very great commercial intercourse between the Egyptians and Ethiopians. So also the rich gum-trees of these parts, from which the ancients derived equally little towards their immeasurable consumption of gum and resin, have first been used for the purposes of commerce in more modern times. From nine to ten we advanced four or five miles. The right shore a magnificent low country. Tamarinds, creepers of a large species, and the lotus shining in great numbers, like double white lilies. This stellated flower opens with the rising of the sun, and closes when it sets. I noticed, however, afterwards, that where they are not protected in some way from the ardent heat, they likewise close when the sun approaches the zenith. Some of their stalks were six feet long, and very porous; from which latter quality these stems, as well as the flower and the larger leaves—dark green above, and red-brown beneath, with a flat serrated border,—have a magnificent transparent vein; but become so shrivelled, even during the damp night, that in the morning I scarcely recognised