514 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
are covered with wood. We now no longer faw any cora fown : The people here were at the fame miferable employ- ment as thofe we had feen before, that of gathering grafs- feeds ; yet, though ftarving, they brought us plenty of milk in exchange for tobacco, a commodity very much in requeft in thefe parts,. At half paft ten we arrived at Gi- did ; the houfes were built of clay, with terralTed roofs : on our way we palTed through feveral little cantonments of Nuba. All this country is fand, interfperfed with thick cop- pices and acacia-trees that feemed not to thrive. On the o- ther fide are large, dead, fandy plains, but both fides of the river are covered with wood. The ferry over the Nile is here from the well to the eaft. The country about Gidid, efpecially to the weftward, is very bare and barren, and fcarcely produces any tiling faving grafs and bent, of which the poor people ufe the feed for bread. This is the cafe all to the w^ftward of El-aice ; and the country here, for want of rain, is faft dwindling into a defert, and the foil is chan- ged to fand. There is no corn, though, from the vicinity of two large rivers, it produces grafs enough for cattle, flieep, and goats, and there is as yet plenty of milk : but as foon as the fun Ihines conftantly, no herbage will remain that can be food for any other cattle but goats, and at laft the whole becomes a perfedt defert, capable of nourifliing aiothing but antelopes and ollriches.
On the 21ft, at feven in the morning "we left Gidid, and near three miles further we came to the paflage, and def- <:endcd a long way with the current before we landed. The manner they pafs the camels at this ferry is by faflcning £ords under their hind quarters, and then tying a halter to their heads. Two men fuitain thefe^ cords, and a third the
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