DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0133
124
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
my boat, the approach to the Cataracts presented
by far the finest scene on the Nile, possessing a
variety and a wildness equally striking and beauti-
ful, after the monotonous scenery along the whole
ascent of the river. With streamers gallantly fly-
ing I entered the little harbour, and with a feeling
of satisfaction that amply repaid me for all its vex-
ations, I looked upon the end of my journey. I
would have gone to the second cataract if time
had been no object to me, or if I had had at that
time any idea of writing a book, as the second
cataract is the usual terminus for travellers on the
Nile; and a man who returns to Cairo without
having been there, is not considered entitled to
talk much about his voyage up the river.
I am perhaps publishing my own want of taste,
when I say that the notion of going to the great
Oasis had taken such a hold of me, that it was
mainly for this object that I sacrificed the voyage
to the second cataract. With the feeling, there-
fore, that here was the end of my journey in this
direction, I jumped upon the bank, and having been
pent up on board for two days, I put myself in
rapid action, and, in one of the cant phrases of
continental tourists, began to " knock down the
lions."
My first move was to the little town of Assouan,
but here I found little to detain me. It was better
built than most of the towns on the Nile, and has
its street of bazars ; the slave-bazars being by
far the best supplied of any. In one of the little
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
my boat, the approach to the Cataracts presented
by far the finest scene on the Nile, possessing a
variety and a wildness equally striking and beauti-
ful, after the monotonous scenery along the whole
ascent of the river. With streamers gallantly fly-
ing I entered the little harbour, and with a feeling
of satisfaction that amply repaid me for all its vex-
ations, I looked upon the end of my journey. I
would have gone to the second cataract if time
had been no object to me, or if I had had at that
time any idea of writing a book, as the second
cataract is the usual terminus for travellers on the
Nile; and a man who returns to Cairo without
having been there, is not considered entitled to
talk much about his voyage up the river.
I am perhaps publishing my own want of taste,
when I say that the notion of going to the great
Oasis had taken such a hold of me, that it was
mainly for this object that I sacrificed the voyage
to the second cataract. With the feeling, there-
fore, that here was the end of my journey in this
direction, I jumped upon the bank, and having been
pent up on board for two days, I put myself in
rapid action, and, in one of the cant phrases of
continental tourists, began to " knock down the
lions."
My first move was to the little town of Assouan,
but here I found little to detain me. It was better
built than most of the towns on the Nile, and has
its street of bazars ; the slave-bazars being by
far the best supplied of any. In one of the little