Sleh, etc.) inaccessible to high winds, and to banks resting on comparatively level expanses (Gizeh, Ismailiya, etc.) or on the flanks of hills (Jebel Nagous, etc.) In Wadi Feirân, near its entrance into the Gulf of Suez, I noticed a prodigious bank of blown sand, with a rounded summit and regular outline, estimated to be 200 feet high. The bank of sand called Seetzen's Slope at Jebel Nagous, rests on the hillside to the height of nearly 400 feet. The dunes immediately on the sea are comparatively insignificant, eight to twelve feet high at the points reached on my route.

On the southern borders of Lake Timsah (an adjunct of the Suez Canal), a series of dunes extends for more than three miles; some of them rising to the height of 100 feet. At a point about three miles from Ismailiya, between the lake and a shallow lagoon separating it from the desert to the south, the north and south winds meet in an eddy, blowing up the fine yellowish sand in steep slopes, terminating in a long knife-edge ridge. On the steepest inclines the sand has the mobility observed at other localities; there were signs of spontaneous movement down the slope. I tested this sand, but all my efforts to coax sound out of it were futile. The sand beneath the surface was not so dry as that observed in the desert.

The dunes are quite without structure; the sand is uniform in grain and color, from the very edge of the lake up over the top of the ridge. No shrubs or blades of grass find foothold on the arid slope; the surface is everywhere marked by wind-furrows, except where obliterated by the spontaneous sliding mentioned.

The abrading and sculpturing by wind-driven sand

may be seen in many places; on the Nile, inscriptions on granite temples and obelisks are sadly defaced where exposed to this agent; and in the desert most picturesque effects are seen, especially in the sandstone region. On the plains, surface pebbles show a delicate pitting and furrowing caused by the sand-blast, not only on soft gypsum and limestone pebbles, but on crystalline quartz.

Mineralogically the Peninsula is very poor. I collected at different points snowy gypsum, fair selenite in imperfect crystals, and massive white chalk, and noted thin streaks of epidote, small garnets and quartz crystals. The turquoise-mines of Maghâra, which were worked under the Pharaohs, and reopened in 1863, are now abandoned.

In

The variety, beauty, and fragrance of the shrubs and flowers in the most forbidding and unexpected spots, were to my unprepared mind a remarkable feature. March I gathered dandelions and daisies at Wadi Useit, also "butter and eggs"; in Wadi Tayyibeh, near saline water, spearmint; and in Wadi Feirân, on the hillsides, sorrel.

The oases with their date-palms, tarfa (or tamarisk) yielding manna, seyâl (or acacia) yielding gum-arabic, gharkad shrubs, and thickets of tall reeds, are veritable islands of fertility in an ocean of desolation. At the Monastery cypresses, oranges, peaches, and vines are cultivated, although 5,000 feet above the sea-level.

Naturalists enumerate a number of large animals that live in the oases of the desert, among them the gazelle, ibex, jackal, and fox. I met with the head of a gazelle and numerous horns of ibexes, and in Wadi Es-Sleh a

Bedouin suddenly appeared with two little half-tamed ibexes about fourteen days old; my travelling companion bought them, but they were unable to withstand the novelty of camel-riding, and, though kindly cared for, died within a few days. Their skins were preserved. I noted on the journey a large field-mouse, a small light yellow snake 2 feet long, and a peculiar kind of a lizard (?) At Assouan I killed an intensely energetic scorpion, and at many places noted chameleons basking in the sun. Of the numerous and curious fish in the Red Sea, I can only say that some of them proved to be excellent food.

Insects were rarely seen in the desert, and only in the neighborhood of water, or in the oases. I observed red and black ants, one large caterpillar, very few flies, many

black beetles, leaving behind them well-defined tracks as they crawled over the fine-grained sand, a few moths, a bee, a grasshopper,' many spiders, a lady-bird (so-called), gnats near the sea-coast; and my travelling companion noted fleas. Mosquitoes, so abundant in Cairo, were not seen nor heard. Twice large birds sailed high above our heads. This is the total of animal life met with in my four weeks' journey, excepting camels and goats.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS AT BERNE, IN 1891.-This Congress will be held in the week of the 10-15 August, 1891, during the celebration of the Seventh Centenary of the city of Berne.

The general programme embraces five divisions : I. TECHNICAL GEOGRAPHY, including Mathematical Geography, Geodesy, Topography and Cartography, Instruments, Projection, The Universal Hour, A Prime Meridian, Orthography of Geographical Names, etc.

2 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.-Configuration of the Land, Hypsometry, Hydrography, Maritime Geography, Variations of Climate, Terrestrial Magnetism, Botanical, Zoological and Geological Geography, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Ethnography, Anthropology, etc.

3. COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY.-Population, Emigration, Agriculture, Means of Communication, Commerce, Industry, Production, Commercial Museums, Geographical Statistics.

4. EXPLORATIONS

AND VOYAGES.-Travels, Expeditions, Explorations, Colonization, Religious Missions.

5. GEOGRAPHICAL INSTRUCTION AND THE DIFFUSION OF GEOGRAPHY.-Methods of Teaching, Models and Instruments, Wall Maps, Atlases, etc., Globes,