natural, as no stone of such immense, size could have
been placed in such a position.
For the first two hours’ march from this landmark,
the country was covered with scrubby bush abounding
in gazelles and guinea-fowl. Here, for the first time,
I saw the secretary bird, known to the Arabs as the
“ Devil s horse.” A pair of these magnificent birds
were actively employed in their useful avocation in
hunting reptiles, which they chased with wonderful
speed. Great numbers of wild asses passed us during
the march towards evening; they were on their way
from the desert to the Atbara river, some miles distant
upon the west. Veritable thunder we now heard for
the first time in Africa, and a cloud rose with great
rapidity from the horizon. A cloud was a wonder that
we had not enjoyed for months, but as this increased
both in size and density, accompanied by a gust of
cool wind, we were led to expect a still greater
wonder-—rain ! Hardly had we halted for the night,
when down it came in torrents, accompanied by a
heavy thunder-storm. On the following morning, we
experienced the disadvantage of rain; the ground was
so slippery that the camels could not march, and wre
were obliged to defer our start until the sun had dried
the surface.
We had now arrived at the most interesting point
to an explorer. From Cairo to within a few miles
south of Gozerajup stretched the unbroken desert
through which we had toiled from Korosko, and
which had so firmly impressed its. dreariness upon
the mind that nothing but desert had been expected
: we had learned to be content in a world of
hot sand, rocks, and pebbles ; but we had arrived
upon the limit ; the curious landmark of Gozerajup
was an everlasting beacon that marked the frontier
of the Nubian desert; it was a giant warder, that
seemed to guard thè living south from the dreadful
skeleton of nature on the north ;—the desert had
ceased !"
It was a curious and happy coincidence that our
arrival upon the limits of the desert should have
been celebrated by the first shower of fain : we no
longer travelled upon sand and stones, but we stood
upon a fertile loam, rendered soapy and adhesive by
the recent shower. The country was utterly barren
at that season, as the extreme heat of the sun and
simoon perishes all vegetation so thoroughly that it
becomes as crisp as glass ; the dried grass breaks
in the wind, and is carried away in dust, leaving
the earth so utterly naked and bare that it is rendered
a complete desert.
In the rainy season, the whole of this country,
from the south to Gozerajup, is covered with excellent
pasturage, and, far from resembling a desert, it becomes
a mass of bright green herbage. The Arabs
and their flocks are driven from the south by the
flies and by the heavy rains, and Gozerajup offers a
paradise to both men and beasts ; thousands of camels
with their young, hundreds of thousands of goats,
sheep, and cattle, are accompanied by the Arabs and