Hamilton, William Richard; Hayes, Charles [Ill.]: Remarks on several parts of Turkey (Band 1): Aegyptiaca, or some account of the antient and modern state of Egypt, as obtained in the years 1801, 1802 ([London], [1809])

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or perhaps large mortars for bruising corn, or, as is the belief of
the present inhabitants, they may have served as storehouses for
salted fish, must still be a subject of conjecture.

Fishing is at this time one of the principal occupations of the
cottagers in the neighbourhood of the Cataracts. When the
river is low, a spiral trap is formed of stones heaped on one an-
other, from the bottom to the surface of the water. The rapidity
of the current forces the fish into it, and as they are unable to
return against the stream, they are pulled out with spears, which
are barbed and hooked for the purpose. When split and salted,
they are dried in the sun for thirty days; the villages in the
neighbourhood are supplied with them in great quantity, and
if properly packed they will keep for several years.

ES SOU AN.

The decline of commercial intercourse betweeen Egypt and
./Ethiopia has converted the populous city of Es Souan into a
mean poor town, subsisting on a scanty portion of cultivable land
between the river and the rocks of the Desert: its only external
sources of wealth arc the petty trade with I brim, the annual
Caravan from Sennaar, and the resort of the Arabs of the 1 '/ast-
ern Desert, to supply themselves with the paltry articles of
European or Turkish manufacture, for which they can pay with
their Scnne, and their dromedaries.

Shortly before we arrived at this town, in ascending the river,
we were gratified with a sight to which either the particular season
of the year or the state of the country below had estranged us for
sometime. As we sailed along the Western bank, and passed the
hamlet of Cafr-el-Es Souan, we were much pleased to see the nar-
row