An incredible number of potsherds were found below on the flat shore which is deserted by the river. I thought to pick up pieces of brick, but I soon discovered that they were fragments of that kind of murhàka which the Shilluks bake from the mixed mud of the Nile, owing to the want of stones. I did not discover any remains of villages on the shore; they appear, however, to lie upon the high gohrs, and the pools arising therefrom, as if upon the primitive shore. These gohrs of the Sobàt running parallel, and lying actually twenty feet higher,—at times, also, displaying higher dams or shores than the river itself, indicate moreover that the river in its young days flowed wider than it does now, without deviating from its direction, so far as I have hitherto observed. I had an opportunity of convincing myself of what I have stated above, at the village in the neighbourhood of which I was shooting, and where I saw two ostriches. Nevertheless these potsherds are testimonies either of a previous and considerable population of the surrounding country, and even the hill covered with shrubs above the potsherds might have supported a village, or that more people dwell above than we should have supposed; and the pieces of murhàkas may be a sign that neither stones nor mountains are near at hand, and that the arts did not flourish; for all these fragments were of rude origin. We have never discovered traces of any finer vessels of terra-cotta, or pieces of glass, enamel, or delft ware, such as we find in Egypt. When the antelopes come to drink, for which they have room enough,—for instance, yesterday evening—on the extensive plain, they appear drawn up as if in line of battle, but run away like a flock of sheep—yet not so close together—as soon as danger threatens. These animals, so numerous here, might be easily tamed and fed by the hand of man, if arms did not prevent such friendship; the lion and hyæna, besides, keep them in constant fear and trembling, and take a tenth part and more of them, in spite of all their innocence, as we have seen by the remains of saraffes and gazelles. Perhaps, the great lord of beasts, with whom I came so closely in contact that it was only necessary for him to make a spring, to set his teeth in my bit of Adam’s flesh, had made such a feast on venison before we met.