There are, all along the canal, water-wheels at work, raising water for irrigating the adjacent gardens and fields. The mode of making them is simple: a channel is cut into the bank, so deep that the water will flow into it; a wheel is made to turn in this cut, being suspended over it; a rope, with a set of jars, passes over this wheel, and is turned by it. This is long enough to allow the jars to pass through the water and come up full, and, in turning, the water is poured into a cistern, and thence conveyed by small troughs to the place where it is needed. The wheels are usually worked by oxen. The number of wheels is very great, and most of them are constantly in motion through the day. We passed some villages near the canal, but none of much size. There were some of a larger size at a distance, as we concluded, from the minarets which we could see. In several places we saw water at a distance that looked like a lake. In passing up the canal, and the same was true after we entered the river, I could not but notice how the people and the animals loved to be in the water. The children and youth were seen in it, and the cattle seemed to have a passion, not only for wading in the water, but for lying down in it, so as often to cover their whole bodies, except a small part of their heads. This may, in part, have been to keep off the flies, but mainly, I judge, to enjoy the coolness which the water imparted to them. I never before understood the force of the expression in Pharaoh's dream, where it is said, he "saw seven kine coming up out of the river." It is true to the life. They lie in the water until satisfied, then come up and feed on the low grounds or meadows near it. We had often heard dismal accounts of the annoyances met with in the boats of the Nile; we were now to have a proof of them. On entering our boat we observed that it had recently been painted, and hoped that this betokened a deliverance from those gentry that so annoy Frank travellers. But in this we were mistaken. No sooner were our lights put out, than they came upon us from their hiding-places in such numbers, as to make it one of the most trying nights we had ever passed. And especially did they assail our children. And whether it was that they liked their young blood better, or that the children, in their sound sleep, made less resistance, I know not, but so it was, that in the morning their faces were disfigured with bites, and their eyes so swollen that they could hardly see. Fortunately, we were not doomed to spend another night in this boat. We reached Atpi during the following day, in time to transfer ourselves and baggage to a river boat, which was about leaving for Cairo. This boat was happily less infested with the gentry above referred to, and we made out pretty well as to sleeping.