Though it be mathematically proved that the great Nile runs in a channel as upon an ass’s back, yet we find just the contrary in the White Nile; but the Sobàt even displays that phenomenon, although not at this moment, for its shores are emptied, except in the lowermost grade. They lie and stretch higher than the adjacent land, being heaped up by the waves of the river; they are, however, generally narrow dams, only appearing wide in the places where there are shallow lakes behind in distant connection, or overgrown gohrs, the grass border of which more easily withstands that deep washing away than these immeasurable plains, which might be called beautiful from their splendid soil, if Ceres waved her golden ears, and Pomona offered shade and fruit. They shew, indeed, but little declination to the Nile, for which the Sobàt itself affords the best standard, being stagnant, and its shores only increasing in height here and there. The shores become higher, as on the great Nile itself; the less precipitous ones (although this is only local) are deceptive, as I have remarked several feet difference on the disrupt shore, and still more on the return voyage. I cannot divest myself of the idea that a lake has stood here also, or it may be that the surface of the earth from the region above to this, has been laid flat by the inundation, similar to the level fields of Egypt. There is an incredible number of deer on the shores of the Sobàt, for I can add from my own conviction, so far as my eyes and ears do not deceive me, that I saw herds of antelopes at least a thousand strong—the Turks say from three to four thousand. About evening they shew themselves in immense lines on the bare horizon of the steppe, stand still, and approach—their tread sounds, in truth, like the evolutions of distant cavalry; at last, as soon as it is dark, they separate in the little bushes on the margin of the shore, to descend to the water. Hitherto I have not been able to seize this opportunity, because no one would remain with me on account of the lions and other savage beasts prowling about here, and it did not seem to me exactly safe, by reason of my close acquaintance with the lion and his just revenge, to lie alone behind a bush, and shoot some of the animals at a few paces off. My cook, however, has promised to accompany me on such sport, when we come again to a suitable place.