Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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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
 
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