to eighteen hours before it will rise to the surface,
while that of the hippopotamus will never
remain longer than two hours beneath the water, and
will generally rise in an hour and a half after
death. This difference in time depends upon the
depth and temperature ; in deep holes of the river of
from thirty to fifty feet, the water is much cooler
near the bottom, thus the gas is not generated m
the body so quickly as in shallow and warmer water.
The crocodile'is not a grass-feeder, therefore the
stomach is comparatively small, and the contents do
not generate the amount of gas, that so quickly distends
the huge stomach of the hippopotamus ; thus
the body of the former requires a longer period before
it will rise to the surface.
In the evening we crossed with our baggage and
people to the opposite side of the river, and pitched
our tents at the village of Goorashee. A small
watercourse had brought down a large quantity of
black sand. Thinking it probable that gold might
exist in the same locality, I washed some earth m a
copper basin, and quickly discovered a few specks of
the precious metal. Gold is found in small quantities
in the sand of the Atbara; at FazoglS on the Blue-
Nile there are mines of this metal worked by the
Egyptian Government. From my subsequent experience
I have, no doubt that valuable minerals,
exist in large quantities throughout the lofty chain-
of Abyssinian mountains from which these rivers
derive their sources.
The camels arrived, and once more we were ready
to start. Our factotum, El Baggar, had collected
a number of both baggage-camels and riding dromedaries
or “ hygeens;” the latter he had brough t for
approval, as we had suffered much from the extreme
roughness of our late camels. There is the -same
difference between a good hygeen or dromedary and
a baggage-camel as between the thoroughbred and
the cart-horse; and it appears absurd in the eyes
of the Arabs that a man of any position shpuld ride
a baggage-camel. Apart from all ideas of etiquette,
the motion of the latter animal is quite sufficient
warning. Of all species of fatigue, the back-breaking
monotonous swing of a heavy camel is the worst; and,
should the rider lose patience, and administer . a
sharp cut with the coorbatch that induces the
creature to break into a trot, the torture of the
rack is a pleasant tickling compared to the sensation
of having your spine driven by a sledge-hammer
from below, half a foot deeper into the skull. The
human frame may be inured to almost anything.;
thus the Arabs, who have always been accustomed
to this kind of exercise, hardly feel the motion, and
the portion of the body most subject to pain in
riding a rough camel upon two bare pieces of wood
for a saddle, becomes naturally adapted for such rough
service, as monkeys become hardened from constantly
sitting upon rough substances. The children commence
almost as soon as they are born, as they must
accompany their mothers in their annual migrations;
H 2