According to my views, therefore, the north winds pass over the mountain of Habesh, which if we take Sennaar, or rather Fazògl, as ten thousand feet high above the Mediterranean Sea, ought to lie in analogous elevation, but which assumption, however, does not appear correct, if we look closely at the mountains of Fazògl. It may be, then, that the ascent of the ground from the Mediterranean to Fazògl fills up two-thirds of this height, which may or may not result from the slight fall of the Nile. General experience teaches us in Germany, that the west wind, as a rule, brings us too liberal an allowance of rain. That fountain of ours lies toward the west, in the ocean: accordingly, the ocean might provide, perhaps, the valleys of both the Niles and their neighbourhood with similar rains, at periodical winds, the uninterrupted effusion of which during the hariffs (rainy season) may be derived from other causes, and perhaps may be sought for in the monsoons. I found the tokuls of the Shilluks slightly arched: but just now I see a few higher vaults, somewhat like the Italian cupolas. They are too high to be called Roman arches. The Romans might have derived their arch from the sky; the Italians adopt the oblique form: every part ought to be light, slender, and tending towards the centre. The tokuls must be considered as the oldest buildings in Africa. Continual rain necessitated good and secure covering, and a sheaf, tied at the top, may have suggested the first idea of a tokul, for the violent showers of rain pierced through the thick horizontal layers of reeds and straw. Thermometer, 19°, 29°, to 30°; sunset, 28°. _29th March._—After the north wind had somewhat abated, yesterday at noon, we pushed on with oars and the rope, and halted on the evening at the right shore, near the Dinkas, where a village was to be seen close above, from which the inhabitants had fled. A hillock extended along the river, resting on a down of the finest white sand; and this sandy deposit being covered entirely with dome-trees, mostly young ones, is perhaps the cause why the river is not half so broad towards this side as previously. The long hollow behind the shore, up to the neighbouring old shores, displays a scanty forest, intersected by two arms of the Nile, which, for the moment, are stopped up above and below. I found, on one dam of earth, remains of a village that had stood here previously. Our crew did not lose the opportunity of setting them on fire, without thinking of sparing the young dome-palms. The proximity of lions is now alleged as the excuse for the necessity of fires, although we have seen none since those on the Sobàt, always excepting the ones described by Arnaud in his journal, whom he attacked chivalrously, with his Fortunatus-cap.