Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/378

 802 NORTH-EAST AFBICA. destruction carried on by the termite, an insect unknown to the riverain peoples of the Lower Nile, and which compel the people to be continually engaged in repairing their dwellings. Before the war, which for several months caused Dongola to be one of the most important bulwarks of the Egyptian Empire, this town enjoyed a fair amount of commerce ; and its port was often crowded with craft scarcely inferior in size to the dahabiyeh, but carrying a square instead of the lateen sail used below the cataracts. Below Dongola the course of the Nile is divided by Argo, one of the largest islands of Nubia and one of the most beautiful, thanks to its wooded hills, cvdtivated fields, villages hidden beneath the foliage, and its sakieh or waterwheels, which the oxen turn slowly beneath the shade of the sycamores. Thousands of years ago Argo was one of the centres of Egyptian civilisation in the Nubian regions ; here was settled, at the period of the third dynasty, a powerful colony of Egyptians. On this island have been discovered huge ruins dating from this epoch, notably two quadrangular masses or tombs, a magnificent colossus -of Sookhotpu IV. and remains of sculptures of the most exquisite style and partially engraved with hiero- glyphics. Two unfinished columns of grey granite lying upon the ground have been probably overthrown by some conquering people before being able to witness to the glory of the sovereign who had caused them to be erected by his enslaved subjects. At the period of the conquest of the country by the Turks Argo consti- tuted a distinct kingdom. The Wady-Kab and Selimeh Oases. To the west of Dongola lies the Wady-Kab, a chain of twelve oases running northwards, and following the Nile at a short distance from it. According to Russegger it should be regarded as an ancient arm of the Nile, continuing that occupied by the present depression of Wady-Mokattam. Bounded right and left by low eminences disposed like the cliffs along a watercourse, the Kab imdoubtedly resembles a river-bed, and passes into the Nile valley above the cataract of ITannek. It is supposed to lie at a lower level than that of the present Nile ; but the numerous sources and sheets of water contained in the wady might be accounted for by the infiltration of water from the river. The pasturages, brush- wood, and groves of dates and other trees make of this depression a chain of oases which could support a numerous population, yet it is only periodically visited by Kababish nomads, who come to graze their herds and to procure dates, and the wood which they sell at Dongola for the construction of the houses and sakiehs. Still farther north are other oases, but of much less extent. Tliat of Selimeh, which lies on the caravan route between Assuan and Darfur, had no fixed popula- tion at a recent period, although its springs, sheltered by groves of palms, are filled with good water. At the period of Browne's expedition, towards the end of the last century, it is said to have had nothing but pasturages ; but in the year 1822 Cuilliaud here found tamarisks and some hundreds of palms, which had probably