Roast mutton is a rare delicacy with them, and their drink is nothing but the Nile water.
During the period of the inundation, the river is twice as full of vessels as at other times.

When the river is swollen, the only method of communication is by boats.
On the last day of this expedition a most beauteous spectacle awaited me--the Delta! Here the mighty Nile, which irrigates the whole country with the hundreds of canals cut from its banks through every region, divides itself into two principal branches, one of which falls into the sea at Rosetta, and the other at Damietta.

If the separate aims of the river could be compared to seas, how much more does its united vastness merit the appellation! When I was thus carried away by the beauty and grandeur of nature, when I thus saw myself placed in the midst of new and interesting scenes, it would appear to me incredible how people can exist, possessing in abundance the gifts of riches, health, and leisure time, and yet without a taste for travelling.

The petty comforts of life and enjoyments of luxury are indeed worth more in the eyes of some than the opportunity of contemplating the exalted beauties of nature or the monuments of history, and of gaining information concerning the manners and customs of foreign nations.

Although I was at times very badly situated, and had to encounter more hardships and disagreeables than fall to the lot of many a man, I would be thankful that I had had resolution given me to continue my wanderings whenever one of these grand spectacles opened itself before me.