Soon there will scarcely be a river more dishonoured than this, by iron chimneys and thick, black smoke.

And it is happening apace, this exploitation of the Nile--hastily, greedily, as in a hunt for spoils.

And thus all its beauty disappears, for its monotonous course, through regions endless alike, won us only by its calm and its old-world mystery.
Poor Nile of the prodigies! One feels sometimes still its departing charm, stray corners of it remain intact.

There are days of transcendent clearness, incomparable evenings, when one may still forget the ugliness and the smoke.

But the classic expedition by dahabiya, the ascent of the river from Cairo to Nubia, will soon have ceased to be worth making.
Ordinarily this voyage is made in the winter, so that the traveller may follow the course of the sun as it makes its escape towards the southern hemisphere.