The Shilluks are tolerably acquainted with the good disposition of the Turks: as soon as a vessel approaches a group of them, they get up and go away; this even befell Selim Capitan, in spite of his interpreter. When they see us coming, they drive the cows from the water, even without letting them drink. We on our side are afraid, and with justice, to land on the inhabited spots. I brought back two guinea-fowls, the produce of my shooting excursion with my servants; I had seen Suliman Kashef with one of a similar kind above. They are not at all like those in Taka, and different only from those of Europe by the darker colour of their plumage. We shall remain here to-night; thunder and rain have been satisfied with merely threatening us,—and are happily over. I disembark once more, and see fifty to sixty giraffes in the level shore towards the horizon, but it was too late to get at them. The thermometer was at nine o’clock in the morning 21°, but did not get up afterwards to more than 28°, fortunately for us,—not so much on account of shooting as because the heat might have been insupportable, for we were between these high shores à talus, with an average angle of 25° to 30°, and the wind was entirely still. _10th March._ We remain to-day here for the sake of shooting, conformably to Suliman Kashef’s determination. His halberdiers set off to-night to follow the course of the giraffes, and to find out their abode in the gallas,—unfortunately without success, for they did not like perhaps to trust themselves so far in the territory of their deadly enemies. I remarked a number of burnt bones of hippopotami in the low forest lying close to the river. I should be inclined to believe that the natives burn the carrion intentionally, in order not to be exposed to the disgusting effluvium. A species of black wasps build hanging-nests here, which however seem from their transparency to contain very little honey. I could not ascertain this more exactly, because I was obliged to be cautious in breaking off a branch with such nests on it. We remark low mountains beyond the softly ascending desert, and perhaps the dry water-courses which issue here from the steppe flow to them, and _there_ may be the real abode of the deer. In my shooting excursion I looked carefully among the thorn-bushes, and found that the plants are mostly the same; I had fancied quite otherwise. A blue convolvulus—not, however, belonging to the water—displayed a lighter colour than usual, and had also round and glutinous leaves: I took seeds of some pretty creepers and gathered the fruits of the shrubs, for I was already acquainted with the leaves. Every thing now was withered, and I am curious to know what will become of the various seeds I have collected when they are sown in Europe.