The western shores, which are marked by rows of acacias almost as though arranged in avenues, have nothing African in their aspect, chiefly on account of the absence of the palm, that chief ornament of the tropics; they rather remind of what may be seen in the thinly-populated districts beside the Volga and other of the streams of Russia. The Arrash-kol is an isolated mountain some hundred feet high, of which the jagged steeps jut up from the uniform level. It is well known to botanists through the treasures which were gathered there thirty years ago by the traveller Kotschy. Time did not permit me to investigate the country from this interesting centre. I was obliged to content myself with a trip to the village of Turra, two leagues away. No idea can be formed of the number of cattle all hereabouts; the route leads over continual watering-places, where herds of cattle, varying in number from 1000 to 3000, are assembled, and form a most striking spectacle. The cattle of the Hassanieh are distinguished by a hump, and are of a race peculiar to the whole of the Soudan, having beyond a doubt some close affinity to the Indian zebu. The ox of the Egyptians, which, in consequence of the cattle-plague in 1863-64, has almost entirely died out, has no hump. Its horns are short, and it differs in the shape of its skull from the ox of the Soudan; the breed has survived only in Central Nubia. In girth and height, not only do the cattle of the Hassanieh exceed the Egyptian, but those which I shall have occasion to mention hereafter as belonging to the Baggara Arabs, surpass the breeds which are kept by the pagan negroes of the Upper Nile. Amongst the Shillooks and Dinka, for instance, the light grey colour predominates, whilst the marking of the skin in the majority of those of which we speak is like a spotted leopard, black specks on a lightish ground; but neither are the white and brown, the piebald, nor coats entirely dun-colour, at all unfrequent. I was conducted through the fragrant wood of the flowering acacia to a place where a little weekly market had gathered the neatherds of the neighbourhood, and where milk flowed in streams. The Hassanieh do not differ externally from the score of other nomad races which, more or less Arabised, inhabit the steppes and deserts on both sides of the Nile. They appeared to me far more confiding than my old friends the Bishareen and Hadendoa, but perhaps for the reason that, speaking good Arabic, they were able to contribute their part to a good understanding on both sides. They crowded round me everywhere to gaze at my strange big dog, and I was repeatedly obliged to give a history in detail of his genealogy, his qualities, and all about him. Being in possession of a splendid race of greyhounds, which they train for gazelle hunting, and of which they have a high opinion, their interest was raised to the highest pitch. The dogs smelt strongly; and it is no exaggeration to say, so did the men.