DESERT LIFE. RECOLLECTIONS OF An Expedition in the Soudan. BY B. SOLYMOS (B. E. FALKONBERG), CIVIL ENGINEER. EVELIOTHE JUL 80 CODLEIANS LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. PREFACE. SEVERAL years ago, when fully engaged in professional work on the Continent, a strong and twofold desire grew upon me, which continually increased in fascination and strength. This feeling, which grew from desire to longing, and ripened from longing into resolve, was composed of a primary desire to see and study some of the great engineering schemes projected by the late Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, through the agency and ability of Mr. John Fowler; and intermingled with this was a more romantic wish to look upon the land of Egypt, to see those golden sands reflecting the eternal sunshine, to dream and be silent near the solemn antiquity of the Pyramids and the mysterious, far-seeing eyes of the Sphinx, to sail upwards along the course of the broad and fertilizing Nile (itself a thing of constant wonder and of almost pardonable worship), and frequently to stop upon its banks to view the ruins of godlike temples and the remains of the cities of a mighty race which grew and flourished and decayed before Athens or Rome had shown signs of infant life. Then, after passing through this continuous succession of the grand remains of those |