. Greatest wonders of the world . nd boulders and fantasticrocks are granite; some red, some purple, some forms are rounded by the friction of ages. Thosenearest the brink reflect the sky like mirrors of burnishedsteel. Royal ovals and hieroglyphed inscriptions, fresh asof yesterdays cutting, stand out here and there from thoseglittering surfaces with startling distinctness. A few of thelarger islands are crowned with clumps of palms; and one,the loveliest of any, is completely embowered in gum-treesand acacias, dom and date-palms, and feathery tamarisks,all festooned together unde
. Greatest wonders of the world . nd boulders and fantasticrocks are granite; some red, some purple, some forms are rounded by the friction of ages. Thosenearest the brink reflect the sky like mirrors of burnishedsteel. Royal ovals and hieroglyphed inscriptions, fresh asof yesterdays cutting, stand out here and there from thoseglittering surfaces with startling distinctness. A few of thelarger islands are crowned with clumps of palms; and one,the loveliest of any, is completely embowered in gum-treesand acacias, dom and date-palms, and feathery tamarisks,all festooned together under a hanging canopy of yellow-blossomed creepers. On a brilliant Sunday morning, with a favourable wind,we entered on this fairy archipelago. Sailing steadilyagainst the current, we glided away from Assuan, leftElephantine behind, and found ourselves at once in themidst of the islands. From this moment every turn of thetiller disclosed a fresh point of view, and we sat on deck,spectators of a moving panorama. The diversity of sub-. h O hU< < < THE CATARACTS OF THE NILE 201 jects was endless. The combinations of form and colour,of light and shadow, of foreground and distance, were con-tinually changing. A boat or a few figures alone werewanting to complete the picturesqueness of the scene, butin all those channels and among all those islands, we sawno sign of any living creature. The Second or Great Cataract, begins a little way aboveWady Halfeh and extends over a distance of many consists, like the First Cataract, of a succession of rocksand rapids, and is skirted for the first five miles or so by thesand-clifF ridge, which, as I have said, forms a backgroundto the ruins just opposite Wady Halfeh. This ridgeterminates abruptly in the famous precipice known as theRock of Abusir. Only adventurous travellers bound forDongola or Khartum go beyond this point; and they, for themost part, take the shorter route across the desert fromKorosko. It is hard, now that we ar
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcuriositiesandwonder
