n could
we know in detail what these pilots did and suffered, what perils they
defied, and how some of them perished--in short, what problems of the
river they went at and how they fared in solving them. That would make a
book by itself.

A few things we may know, however. This, for instance: that, while the
maps put down six cataracts in the Nile between Cairo and Khartum, say
fifteen hundred miles, there are, in truth, many more than six. Between
the second and third alone there are more than six, and some of them
bad. Also that the river beyond the third cataract curves away in a
great rambling S, so that Lord Wolseley planned to send an expedition,
as he actually did, straight on from that point by a short cut across
the desert. The important thing then, and the difficult thing, was to
reach the third cataract, and upon this all the skill of the voyageurs
was concentrated.

The first cataract, about five hundred miles above Cairo, is fairly easy
of ascent; the second cataract, some two hundred and fifty miles farther
on, is perhaps the most dangerous of all, and resembles its rival at
Lachine in this, that the Nile here strains through myriad foam-lashed
islands strewn in the channel for a length of seven miles, like teeth of
a crooked comb. A balloonist hovering here would see the river streaming
through these islands in countless channels that wind and twist in a
maze of silver threads. But to lads in the boats these silver threads
were so many plunging foes, torrents behind torrents, sweeping down
roaring streets of rock, boiling through jagged lanes of rock; and up
that seven-mile way the pilots had to go and keep their craft afloat.

[Illustration: HAULING A STEAMER UP THE NILE RAPIDS.]

Jackson described the boats used in this hazardous undertaking. There
were, first, the ordinary whale-boats, about twenty-five feet long and
five feet high, with a crew of ten Dongolese at the oars, and two or
three sails to catch the helpful northerly winds. Overhead was an
awning stretched against the scorching sun, and around the sides were
boxes and bags of provisions and ammunition,--five or six tons to a
boat,--piled high for shelter against bullets, for no one could tell
when a band of Arabs, lurking at some vantage-point, might fall to
picking off the men. At a cataract the crew would go ashore, save two, a
voyageur in the stern to steer and another in the bow to fend off rocks,
or, in case of need, give one swift,