_March 20th._ We rode over a sandy plain, in the direction of N. E. by E., and in two hours and a half, came again to the river at Wady Djayme (وادي جيمه). The face of the country here has a less rugged appearance; the river, for several miles, is free from rocks and islands, and a narrow strip of cultivable soil lines the shore. We met with an Arab, who was digging salt in the western hills: it is found in small white pieces, mixed with sand and stones; these are boiled in water, and when the salt is dissolved, the Arabs strain the solution through their shirts, and preserve it in large earthen vessels; whenever they are in want of salt, for their dishes, they pour a little of this brine over them. From hence the road along the shore was N. N. E. The rock here is entirely grünstein. In three hours and a half, we reached Wady Mershed. On the west side, opposite the island mentioned in my way southward, stand two detached brick buildings, a small Greek convent, and a church; in which some paintings of saints are still visible on the walls. The plain here is broader than in any other part of the Batn el Hadjar, and bears traces of former cultivation; it is now entirely deserted, although many date trees grow here. From hence northward, the face of the country gradually loses its wild aspect, and the eastern chain diminishes considerably in height. In four hours and a half we came to three or four chapels, or dwellings of cenobites, close to, but detached from, each other: these may have been the habitations of ambitious monks, whom the fanaticism of party had driven from Constantinople into the deserts of Nubia. Five hours and a half, the river is again choked with rocks and islands, and continues so to the Cataract of Wady Halfa. Here the Wady Sulla (سُلّه) commences: the road ascends the sandy hills which skirt the narrow plain along the shore. On the top of these hills is an immense plain, in which are a number of small insulated hillocks, some of them so regular in their shape, as to appear like the work of art. In six hours, we reached the borders of the upper plain; overhanging the river are the remains of a considerable brick enclosure, about three hundred feet square, with a thick wall; it had probably served as a watch-tower; there are no ruins whatever within the area of the enclosure. At this place a distant view opens over the river and its islands, upon one of which, just below, are some brick ruins. In seven hours and a half we came again to the river; the road N. E. by E. At eight hours we passed the celebrated second Cataract of the Nile, or _The Cataract of Wady Halfa_, laid down in all the maps of Nubia under the name of the _Cataract of Jan Adel_.[48] The cataract is formed by a part of the stream only, at most twenty yards in breadth; its fall is more rapid, and the noise and foam greater, than in any other place in the Batn el Hadjar, or than at the cataracts of Assouan; still, however, it little deserves