The sand-hills appeared less frequently, though on the route between Atfe and Cairo I still saw five or six large barren places which had quite the look of deserts.

Once the wind blew directly towards us from one of these burning wastes with such an oppressive influence, that I could easily imagine how dreadful the hot winds (chamsir) must be, and I no longer wondered at the continual instances of blindness among the poor inhabitants of these regions.

The heat is unendurable, and the fine dust and heated particles of sand which are carried into the air by these winds cannot fail to cause inflammation of the eyes.
Little towers of masonry, on the tops of which telegraphs have been fixed, are seen at intervals along the road between Alexandria and Cairo.
Our vessel was unfortunate enough to strike several times on sand- banks, besides getting entangled among the shallows--a circumstance of frequent occurrence during the time that the Nile is rising.

On these occasions I could not sufficiently admire the strength, agility, and hard-working perseverance of our sailors, who were obliged to jump overboard and push off the ship with poles, and afterwards were repeatedly compelled to drag it for half an hour together through shallow places.

These people are also very expert at climbing.