These creatures are fond of immersing their bodies in the cool flood, where they stand gazing at the passing ships.

Here and there little plantations of twenty to thirty trees are seen, which appear, as the ground is completely overflowed, to be growing out of the Nile.

The water here is much more muddy and of a darker colour than in the canal between Atfe and Alexandria.

The sailors pour this water into great iron vessels, and leave it to settle and become clearer; this is, however, of little use, for it remains almost as muddy as the river.

Notwithstanding this circumstance, however, this Nile-water is not at all prejudicial to health; on the contrary, the inhabitants of the valley assert that they possess the best and wholesomest water in the world.