[Sidenote: AFRICAN NOVELTIES.] The graceful shade acacias (_A. spirocarpa_) here come once again into the front, soon to be finally lost sight of on the other side of the neighbouring desert. Along the right bank there were many masses of a large-leaved shrub, which covers the country, and for miles disputes the precedence with all the prevailing vegetation; it is the _Ipomæa asarifolia_, appearing in some places like rose bushes in the luxuriant adornment of its ample blossoms, a bright relief to the general dreariness of the shore. Our voyage is again continued by night; the channel is broad and deep; freely we sail throughout the hours of darkness. The noise of the hippopotamuses is the chief disturbance; it seems as if there is no relief from their tumult. It almost seemed as if they were quite close about us, but one had but to look around, and their clumsy heads were visible in the distance, projecting like black points above the stream. By way of variety there came, at intervals, the roar of some lion prowling on the bank. Such were the novelties of Africa. In the morning we passed Dueme, one of the largest villages in this district. Soon we reached the groups of little islands whose soil, naturally fertile, has been successfully subject to a recent cultivation. It is a cheering sign of the progress of cultivation in these regions, to see the fellaheen of Nubia travelling continually further and further up the banks of the White Nile. The passive population of blacks on the river, at least in the space of a few decades, has been partly displaced, and partly spurred on to greater energy; and doubtless, therefore, there are many places in Nubia itself capable of being cultivated, which have become desolate only as a consequence of the oppressiveness of a heavy taxation. The flocks of geese were still unending, and every expedient was resorted to to make a variety in the way of cooking them; they were stuffed with rice; they were dressed with tomato sauce; they were served with mushrooms; and when every imaginable way of preparing them was exhausted, we had recourse, by way of variety, to the ducks (_Anas viduata_) which were obtainable. Then was the golden age of my _cuisine_. Our provisions were ample, and the inventive faculties of my cook Riharn turned them all to the best account. But different times were yet to come, times when Riharn must murmur that the three years of his life spent in Shepherd’s Hotel in Cairo had all been sacrificed, and must repine that he could find no scope for his abilities in Central Africa. The result of all this was, that he was a terrible backslider in his art, and at the end of three years could never cook a dish of rice without burning it.