We passed Mollé, a small village with a great number of acacia trees intermixed with the plantations of palms. These occasion a pleasing variety, not only from the difference of the shape of the tree, but also from the colour and diversity of the green.
As the sycamore in Lower Egypt, so this tree seems to be the only indigenous one in the Thebaid. It is the Acacia Vera, or the Spina Egyptiaca, with a round yellow flower. The male is called the Saiel; from it proceeds the gum arabic, upon incision with an ax. This gum chiefly comes from Arabia Petrea, where these trees are most numerous. But it is the tree of all deserts, from the northmost part of Arabia, to the extremity of Ethiopia, and its leaves the only food for camels travelling in those desert parts. This gum is called Sumach in the west of Africa, and is a principal article of trade on the Senega among the Ialofes.
A large plantation of Dates reaches all along the west side, and ends in a village called Masara. Here the river, though broad, happened to be very shallow; and by the violence with which we went, we stuck upon a sand bank so fast, that it was after sun-set before we could get off; we came to an anchor opposite to Masara the night of the 19th of December.
On the 20th, early in the morning, we again set sail and passed two villages, the first called Welled Behi, the next Salem, about a mile and a half distant from each other on the west side of the Nile. The mountains on the west side of the valley are about sixteen miles off, in a high even ridge, running in a direction south-east; while the moun-tains,
