too late by at least a century, and that the stimulus which they received about the time of the crusades was more from the natural and ordinary effects of mutual intercourse and traffic, than from any thing which was to be learned from their wild and indiscriminate rapine in Syria, or from enemies whose language few of them understood, and who were themselves already very far declined from the short-lived splendour and science of the courts of Haroun and Almaimoun.

The theory which supposes Adamnanus, abbot of Iona, to have brought the pointed style of architecture from Jerusalem to his own island, 500 years before it was known either in France or England, is so eloquently and plausibly stated that we are almost unwilling to disturb the foundations on which it stands. It is certain, however, that we have no good reason to suppose that, in the days of Adamnanus, any buildings in this style existed in Jerusalem. The Church of the Sepulchre, as Dr. Clarke saw it, and even as it stood previous to its reparation in 1555, had no pretensions to be the original work of Helena. It had been ruined by the Saracens, and rebuilt by the bounty of the Caliph Daber, A. D. 1044, so that we have no reason to carry back its pointed arches to the time of Adamnanus. And the ruins of Iona, which have little to astonish an eye familiar with Gothic architecture, are distinguished by many minute peculiarities from any of the Gothic buildings of Italy or the east, and very evidently belong to a period of the style far later than that which is visible in many English fabrics.

During the passage of the Romulus from Acre to Aboukir, our traveller witnessed a very strange, and, to those unacquainted with these seas, a very alarming phenomenon.

'As we were sitting down to dinner, the voice of a sailor employed in heaving the lead was suddenly heard calling "half four!" The Captain, starting up, reached the deck in an instant; and almost as quickly putting the ship in stays, she went about. Every seaman on board thought she would be stranded. As she came about, all the surface of the water exhibited a thick black mud: this extended so widely, that the appearance resembled an island. At the same time, no land was really visible, not even from the mast-head, nor was there any notice of such a shallow in any chart on board. The fact is, as we learned afterwards, that a stratum of mud, extending for many leagues off the mouths of the Nile, exists in a moveable deposit near the coast of Egypt, and, when recently shifted by currents, it sometimes reaches quite to the surface, so as to alarm mariners with sudden shallows, where the charts of the Mediterranean promise a considerable depth of water. These, however, are not, in the slightest degree, dangerous. Vessels no sooner touch them than they become dispersed; and a frigate may ride secure, where the soundings would induce an inexperienced pilot to believe her nearly aground.'-Vol. iii. p. 13.

The Braakel, which again received them on their return, was now to be employed in conveying to France the prisoners taken in Cairo and Rosetta. They formed a singular and melancholy spectacle; the tattered trappings of war, contrasted with the pale cheeks and haggard eye of the wounded and captive soldier, have always this effect. But, among those whom the Braakel received, concealed, like the rest, in dirty and ragged uniforms, were many unhappy Frenchwomen, the usual followers of a camp, and others more wretched still, natives of Georgia or Circassia, once the tenants of Turkish charems, since the slaves of Menou's soldiery ; and now flying for their lives from the fate which, in Egypt, awaited those who had submitted to the embrace of an infidel.

In the midst of all this misery, the natural levity of the French character was strongly conspicuous, as well as that equally characteristic and more laudable feeling of attachment to their native land which made them rejoice to return thither under any circumstances. The wounded men died faster than the surgeons could attend to them; but the survivors established a fencing school and theatre on the deck of the Braakel, and sangGod save the King,' in broken English, while the officers of the ship were at dinner. A short interruption was given to this merriment by a severe gale which the Braakel encountered in leaving the road, and which had nearly compelled them to return to Europe much sooner than they had intended. Fortunately for Dr. Clarke and his readers, they were extricated from this dilemma by the Diadem, Captain Larmour; and, after experiencing some danger in the surf of the Boccaze, were landed once more amid the palm-trees of Rosetta. Most of the houses in this city were now occupied by English soldiers and their Georgian and Circassian mistresses, the legacies of the conquered French,now perfectly reconciled to their new possessors. It is melancholy to conjecture what has been the subsequent fate of these poor creatures. The French, as we have seen, carried away all they could, and some of these fugitives have since been found decently settled with the relations of their husbands. But we have not heard of any who embarked with their English protectors, and if they were left to the mercy of the Turks, the result is not difficult to anticipate.

On Rosetta Dr. Clarke has added little to his former observations. The Italianized name is well known to be a corruption of the Arabic Raschid,' or 'orthodox.' But he is mistaken in supposing that it received this name from any connexion with the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, inasmuch as it remained an insignificant village, under its original name of Scheida,' till long after Haroun's death, when it was increased in size and dignity, and received

its present appellation (as we learn from Elmacin) from Almotewakel, Caliph of Egypt A. D. 870.

Our travellers left this place on the morning of August 10th, and proceeded up the Nile to Cairo, then occupied by the English and their Turkish allies. The Etesian, or north west winds, which prevail, like a regular monsoon, during the months of July and August, corresponding with the annual inundation of the Nile, and in direct opposition to its current when most violent, are a wonderful dispensation of Providence for the advantage of Egypt.

A vessel, leaving Rosetta, is driven by this wind with extraordinary velocity against the whole force of the torrent to Caïro, or into any part of Upper Egypt. For the purpose of her return, with even greater rapidity, it is only necessary to take down the mast and sails, and leave her to be carried against the wind by the powerful current of the river. It is thus possible to perform the whole voyage from Rosetta to Bulâc, the quay of Caïro, and back again, with certainty, in about seventy hours, a distance equal to four hundred miles.' p. 32.

Of the population, fertility, and beautiful groves of Lower Egypt, our traveller speaks with much respect, but there are many circumstances which, at certain seasons of the year, make it a very uncomfortable place of residence to the native of a colder climate. Not, however, that it is, in these respects, less fortunate than all other regions similarly situated as to heat and moisture; and the bitterness of Dr. Clarke's complaints on the banks of the Nile, would not excite much pity in a planter of Surinam, or New Carthagena, or even in an inhabitant of the neighbourhood of the Ganges. It is amusing, indeed, to observe with what ardour of imagination this lively writer deduces the frogs, flies, and lice of 'modern Egypt from the miraculous plagues inflicted by Moses, and how he identifies that usual and salutary eruption, well known in our West India islands by the name of Prickly Heat,' with the dreadful boils and blains,' which chastized the impiety of Pharoah. It is true that, as Lincolnshire is less wholesome than Norfolk, so these moist regions have always been, and are described in Scripture as being, less favourable to health than the high and arid lands of Syria and Idumæa; but, if Dr. Clarke had performed a journey to Mount Sinai, or, if he had even traversed the usual route between Jaffa and Damietta, he would have found, to his cost, that some kinds of vermin are no less familiar with man' in Arabia, than in the accursed land of Ham:' and that it is absurd to identify these customary and natural visitations with those displays of celestial wrath which tamed the river-dragon,' and which, we know from Scripture, so far from being entailed thenceforth on the country, were withdrawn, after a few days continuance, by the same divine power which inflicted thein.

L3

Irriga

Irrigation is carried to a vast extent throughout the Delta, but it is effected, for the most part, by artificial means; and an exaggerated idea of the effects of the Nile is conveyed by the beautiful description of Gray. Extensive canals on each side of the river conduct its waters to the utmost extent of their level, but the fields are many of them supplied by water-wheels, or the still simpler process of lading. The soil thus treated produces three crops in the year-clover, corn, and rice, of which the last is sown while the field is actually under water, a practice which, as Dr. Clarke observes, is alluded to by Solomon. (Eccles. ii. 1.) The eastern sycamore attains an enormous size, and its boughs are so bent by the prevalent winds as to make them resemble a peacock's tail. The fruit resembles in shape the common fig, but is smaller, dry and insipid. The thermometer stood at 90° in the shade, and the inhabitants of the country were walking about or engaged in the avocations of husbandry in a state of perfect nakedness, and displaying a complexion of the darkest tawny. They arrived at Bulac at midnight, and were aroused the next morning with intelligence that the Pyramids were in sight. What follows is in our author's best style of description.

Never will the impression made by their appearance be obliterated. By reflecting the sun's rays, they appeared as white as snow, and of such surprizing magnitude, that nothing we had previously conceived in our imagination had prepared us for the spectacle we beheld. The sight instantly convinced us that no power of description, no delineation can convey ideas adequate to the effect produced in viewing these stupendous monuments. The formality of their structure is lost in their prodigious magnitude: the mind, elevated by wonder, feels at once the force of an axiom, which, however disputed, experience confirms, that in vastness, whatever be its nature, there dwells sublimity. Another proof of their indescribable power is, that no one ever approached them under other emotions than those of terror; which is another principal source of the sublime. In certain instances of irritable feeling, this impression of awe and fear has been so great, as to cause pain rather than pleasure; of which we shall have to record a very striking instance in the sequel. Hence, perhaps, have originated descriptions of the Pyramids which represent them as deformed and gloomy masses, without taste or beauty. Persons who have derived no satisfaction from the contemplation of them, may not have been conscious that the uneasiness they experienced was a result of their own sensibility. Others have acknowledged ideas widely different, excited by every wonderful circumstance of character and situation ;-ideas of duration, almost endless; of power, inconceivable; of majesty, supreme; of solitude, most awful; of grandeur, of desolation, and of repose.'-Vol. ii. pp. 44-46.

They had letters from the Captain Pasha to the Reis Effendi,

or

or Turkish Secretary of State, then at Caïro, whom they found a well-informed traveller, speaking French with fluency, and not unacquainted with the English language; having himself visited Great Britain, and published an account of our manners, laws, and commerce, which is popular, both at Caïro and Constantinople. His opinions on these subjects our travellers only partially discovered. He was, apparently, too wary a politician to commit himself in any discussions of importance, and only ventured on some strictures on the veal and cyder' of our metropolis.

Dr. Clarke's description of Caïro is short, but very interesting, and full of curious matter. It is the dirtiest metropolis in the world; but the picturesque crowd in its streets, and on its canals, and the varied foliage of its gardens, no less than the splendid and singular panorama seen from the heights of the citadel, have so much of beauty and novelty, as amply to repay the inconveniences to which its virtues are necessarily exposed. Here, as in South America, the lizard is the harmless inhabitant of all the gardens, and is seen hanging on the walls and ceilings of the best apartments. Dr. Clarke appears to have regarded them with more disgust than became a philosopher, but had too accurate an eye to overlook (what many professed naturalists have passed over in silence) the circular membrane which enables them to walk (as flies do by the same mechanism) in situations seemingly least adapted to support them. The swarms of flies which these people have not learned to repel by the elegant inventions of Hindostan, filled every dish and every drinking vessel, and the climate, though extolled as delightful by the British officers who had arrived from India, appeared to Dr. Clarke only tolerable to those who could reconcile themselves to the listless and sordid inactivity of the natives and those Franks who had been long settled in the country.

In the midst of all these discomforts, the Indian army under General Baird, then encamped in the Isle of Rouda, astonished both Arabs, Turks, and the inhabitants of western Europe, with the splendour of their tents and banquets, and the admirable health and discipline of their soldiers. We cannot, indeed, sympathise with that more than oriental luxury which had transported glass chandeliers, mahogany tables, and Madeira wine, across the desert from Cosseir, and which was strangely contrasted with the simplicity and soldierly privations of General Hutchinson and his officers before Alexandria. But it would be unjust to deny very considerable praise to the care which had preserved three thousand men from sickness during the most unwholesome months of the year; and, independently of the military advantage of such a reinforcement, the results of this extraordinary expedition were very interesting and important. It is not strange that the Sepoys were almost

L 4