This steamer had sailed from London, and
had arrived complete at Alexandria.
It appears almost impossible that she is now floating at an altitude of
nearly 2,000 feet above the sea level; to which great elevation she has
actually steamed from the Mediterranean. Thus, starting from a base
line, and producing a line perpendicular to the sea level of 2,000 feet,
she has climbed up the Nile to her present high position.
Accepting the approximate length of the Nile in all its windings from
the Mediterranean to N. lat. 4 degrees 38 minutes, at 3,000 miles in
round numbers; this will give an average rise or fall in the river of
nine inches per mile; which easily explains the position of the steamer
at her most remote point below the last cataracts.
I revelled in this lovely country. The fine park-like trees were clumped
in dark-green masses here and there. The tall dolape-palms (Borassus
Ethiopicus) were scattered about the plain, sometimes singly, at others
growing in considerable numbers. High and bold rocks; near and distant
mountains; the richest plain imaginable in the foreground, with the
clear Un-y-Ame flowing now in a shallow stream between its lofty banks,
and the grand old Nile upon our right, all combined to form a landscape
that produced a paradise.
