covers about twelve feet of the exterior frontage;
a fence thus arranged is quickly constructed, and
is quite impervious. Two or three large trees grew
within the camp; beneath the shade of this, our tent
was pitched. This we never inhabited, but it served
as an ordinary room, and a protection to the luggage,
guns, &c. The horses were well secured within a 0 3 double circle of thorns, and' the goats wandered
about at liberty, as they were too afraid of wild
animals to venture from the camp : altogether this
was the most agreeable spot we had ever occupied;
even the night-fires would be perfectly concealed
within the dense shade of the nabbuk jungle, thus
neither man nor beast would be aware of our presence.
We were about a hundred paces distant
from the margin of the river; late in the evening
1 took my rod, and fished-in the deep bend beneath
a cliff of conglomerate pebbles. I caught only one
fish, a baggar, about twelve pounds, but I landed
three- large turtles; these creatures were most determined
in taking the bait ; they varied in size
from fifty to about ninety pounds, and were the
same species as that" which inhabits the Nile (Trionis
Nilotica). From one of them we took upwards, of
a hundred eggs, which we converted into omelettes,
but they were rather strong in flavour.
Although this species of turtle is unprepossessing
in appearance, having a head very like that of a
snake, with a dark green shell spotted' with yellow,
it produces excellent soup; the body is exceedingly
flat, and the projecting edges of the shell are soft;
it runs extremely fast upon the shore, and is suggestive
of the tortoise that beat the hare in the
well-known race. Throughout the Nile and its tri- •
butaries there are varieties of fish and reptiles closely
connected, and the link can be distinctly traced in
the progression of development. There is a fish
with a hard bony frame, or shell, that includes the
head, and extends over more than half the body;
this has two long and moveable spikes beneath the
fore fins, upon which it can raise itself as upon legs
when upon the land; when first caught, this fish
makes a noise something like the mewing of a cat:
this appears to be closely linked to the tortoise.
The Lepidosiren Annectens, found in the White Nile,
is a link between the fish and the frog; and certain
varieties of mud fish that remain alive throughout
a dry season in t the sun-baked earth, and reappear
with the following rains, exhibit a close affinity to
reptiles.
On the morning after our arrival, I started to
explore the country with the aggageers, and rode
about forty miles. From this point, hills of basalt
and granite commenced, connected by rugged undulations
of white quartz, huge blocks of which
were scattered upon the surface; in many of these
I found thin veins of galena.
All the rocks were igneous; we had left the
sandstone that had marked the course of the Atbara
and the valley of the Settite as far as Ombrega,