bank of the Nile, are the remains of 35 pyramids, which probably formed the tombs of the kings and royal personages of Napata. These pyramids are better and more solidly built than any others which the writer has seen in the Sûdân, and in very few cases do their cores consist of anything besides well-hewn sandstone blocks laid in regular Each pyramid had originally a chapel in front of its face on the south-east side, but every building of the courses. The Pyramids of Nûri at the foot of the kind has long since disappeared, and there is not an inscription or bas-relief left by which any of them may be dated. The style of building suggests the Middle Empire, but only excavations of an extensive character can decide this question. The remains of two temples are to be found there, and the ruins of buildings which are found all the way between Sanam Abu-Dôm and Nûrî prove that in the flourishing times of the kingdom of Nubia a great city must have extended nearly the whole way between these places. The whole district could, under an honest government, become very flourishing, but it will need many years to recover from the misery and desolation caused in the first place by the incapacity, cruelty, and dishonesty of the officials who represented the Turkish Government, and secondly by the Mahdî and the Khalifa. At Karêma, quite close to Marawî, is the terminus of the new line which runs from No. 10 Station in the Abû Ḥamed Desert along the right bank of the Nile to Marawi. The line is about 138 miles long, and is of great importance, for it brings the Provinces of Dongola and Marawî into close touch with the main line and makes Sawâkin or Port Sûdân their sea-port. At Bělǎl, or Bellal, 8 miles from Marawi, is the foot of the Fourth Cataract, which extends to Abû Ḥamed, a distance of 140 miles. A few miles beyond Bělǎl, on the west bank, are the remains of a Coptic building, part monastery and part fortress, which contained a church, and opposite Hamdab Island, about 6 miles further on, are the ruins of a pyramid. The journey from Bělǎl to Abû Ḥamed is difficult, but the following places in the Cataract will always possess interest for the British. Birti, 48 miles from Marawî, the headquarters of the River Column in the Nile Expedition of 1884; Kirbikân, 56 miles from Marawi, where the British defeated the Dervishes, February 10, 1885, and General Earle was killed by a Dervish who 'sniped' him from a hut; Salamât, 80 miles from Marawi, which was occupied by the British on February 17; and Hebbah, 88 miles from Marawi. On the 18th of September, 1884, the steamer Abbas, with Colonel Stewart on board, was run aground on the west side of the Island of Hebbah, and every one of the 44 men on board, except four, was treacherously murdered by the arrangement of Sulêman Wâd Kamr, the shêkh of the Munâşîr tribe. The British troops, on February 17, 1885, destroyed the house and palm-trees and water-wheels of this shêkh, and three days later the property of Fakri Wâd Atmân, in whose house at Hebbah Colonel Stewart had been murdered, was also destroyed. The ill-fated steamer was seen tightly fixed on a rock about 200 yards from the river, with her bottom about 20 feet above lowwater level; she was pitted with bullet marks and rent by fragments of shell. Near Abû Hamed, 587 miles from Wâdî Halfa by river and about 232 by rail, is the head of the Fourth Cataract. On August 7, 1897, the village was captured by General Sir A. Hunter, and about 1,200 men of the Dervish garrison there were slain; at this battle Major Sidney and Lieut. FitzClarence were killed. Abû Ḥamed derives its name from a local shêkh who is buried here, and whose memory is greatly venerated in the neighbourhood, and it owes its importance entirely to the fact that the caravans, which crossed the Nubian desert, started from it. It is said that any article left at the tomb of the shêkh by a traveller on his departure, will be found there uninjured on his return! At Abû Hamed are excellent baths for ladies and gentlemen. The Abû Ḥamed-Karêma Railway. The Junction from which travellers leave the main line from Halfa to Khartûm is at No. 10 Station in the Abû Hamed Desert, about 18 miles from Abú Hamed. The engineers who surveyed the line found that the cost of making a railway close to the river along the right bank of the Fourth Cataract would, on account of the hilly nature of the district, be prohibitive, and the line is therefore laid on the flat desert behind the hills on the river bank. From No. to Station it proceeds to Dakhfili, a large camping ground close to the river, opposite Shirri Island, about 70 miles from No. 10 Station, and 75 miles from Merawî. This is the only place en route where the railway touches the river. The terminus of the line is at Karêma, 138 miles from No. 10 Station, close to Gebel Barkal. The line was built by Capt. E. C. Midwinter, R.E., Mr. C. G. Hodgson, Mr. G. B. Macpherson Grant, and Mr. H. V. Hawkins, and was opened on the 8th of March, 1906, by Sir Reginald Wingate, Governor-General of the Sûdân. From Karêma steamers run at regular intervals to and from Kerma, between June and March, and thus the produce of the Dongola Province can now be sent without difficulty to Atbara and the Red Sea and to Khartûm. Every traveller who can spare the time should take the opportunity of visiting Gebel Barkal and the remains of the temples of Piānķhi, Senka-Åmen-seken, and Tirhâķâh, and the Pyramids of Gebel Barkal and Nûri. The ruins of the Christian monastery in the Wâdî al-Ghazâl are worth a visit. It is now easy to visit Old Dongola, and the Island of Arķô where there are statues, and the famous quarries on the Island of Tombos. The river scenery between Merawî and Dabba is lovely, and there is much to interest the traveller who cares for the Sûdân in the now thriving Province of Dongola. The cost in time and money of paying a visit to the site of Napata, the ancient capital of the Northern Sûdân, need not be great, and we may be sure that the authorities, through their able governor of the Province, Colonel H. W. Jackson Pâshâ, will afford every reasonable facility. Until the opening of the Karêma Railway it was not possible to visit the interesting bend in the river where Merawî lies without considerable cost and trouble, but now this is all changed, and we may hope that tourists will be sufficiently numerous to induce the Government to continue the line to New Dongola and perhaps even to Kerma. The closing of the Halfa-Kerma line will be deplored by all |