by a mob of donkey boys. These gamins, as is their wont, soon made a rush upon us, each dragging along his own particular donkey for hire. The effect of this " charge" was such, that in an incredibly short space of time our party was surrounded by a motley collection of boys and donkeys, the former screaming out the praises of the latter in rival assertions, "very good donkey, Captain," "Captain, very good donkey." Now, as all were vociferating at the same time with a violence of tone and gesticulation known only to Arabs, and each one "suiting the action to the word" by forcing forward his own donkey, as a practical illustration of the truth he was shouting himself hoarse to proclaim, it became necessary to mount the nearest quadruped in self-defence. The dragoman, meanwhile, was engaged in an indiscriminate attack upon the boys and their donkeys, and was "laying about" vigorously with a stout stick! Arabs take a thrashing well, and, apparently the more indiscrimanately it was administered the better! Whether it was that the mob were all in fault, or that justice was not to be obtained against a dragoman in charge of a European party, we could not determine; but the wonder was none the less, that sound castigation could be administered to the many by one, and, above all, with such manifest impunity! Once safely extricated from the noisy mob, I have just described, our way was easy to Shepherd's hotel, and a few minutes sufficed to reach it. Our stay here was of the shortest, but as we saw more of this world famed establishment in the course of our return, I may reserve notice of it till I come to describe our second visit.

From Shepherd's hotel we drove to the terminus of Alexandria railway in the open carriages to be hired on the stands. On arriving at the terminus some slight delay occurred, owing to the number of passengers being in excess of the accommodation; soon, however, additional carriages were attached, and we were not sorry for the delay, as it gave us time to study the scene presented by the groups on the platform. Many present seemed to have no higher object in being there than to gratify their curiosity. Others, however, (women of the poorer class) carried pitchers of water, which they offered for sale at the carriage windows. Water sold as a luxury seems to the European-at least at first sight-a strange thing enough! It does not, however, require a very long residence in the east to teach one to appreciate this novel practice. It is only in a climate like that of Alexandria that water-always and everywhere a necessity of life-becomes a perfectly indispensable companion for a journey, and an invaluable addition to comfort. Fortunately, though at the time unaware of what a luxury it would prove, we purchased a couple of these water pitchers, the cooling contents of which we fully appreciated during the day. The usual bell-ringing and railway-whistling having been gone through, we at last started, and experienced, as we leaned back in our richly padded carriages, that momentary feeling of re

lief that always accompanies a decided start in a journey well begun.

The scene that now met our eyes as we steamed away miles from Alexandria, was one of an essentially eastern character, presenting extensive plains of sand sparingly interspersed with patches of verdure, and here and there a pool of muddy water dammed up with a care that evinced its great value. These were the principal physical features of the immense level that not only lay around us on all sides, but seemed also to stretch ad infinitum towards Cairo. Meanwhile, groups of wandering Arabs leading camels, venerable-looking old men riding on donkeys, and even the presence of oxen treading out the corn, furnished foreground figures so much in keeping with the scene as to be suggestive of the pictures to be seen in many an old family-bible. Barren indeed must the fancy be, and feeble the memory of him who could not here recognize a likeness to Eleazar journeying in search of a wife for his young master; and there a group such as the Ishmaelite presented to whom Joseph was sold. Even yon solitary Arab, with his turbaned head and flowing beard, meditatively riding along on his ass, was sufficient to conjure up a recollection of the sad fate of the man of God from Judah, whom a lion met in the way.

The aptness of the groups we were now passing to the incidents of early Scripturehistory was such that it could scarcely fail to strike even the least observant. Many of the Scripture allusions to the scorching heat of the sun, and the luxury of a "shadow from the heat," seemed all the more vivid to us now that we beheld practical illustration in some weary traveller halting beneath the friendly branches of a solitary tree; or if no better shade presented, gladly availing himself of the shelter of a standing wall. So necessary was it to have some protection against the sun, that travellers seemed in some cases to be provided with a piece of carpet or other coarse cloth, which when stretched upon light stakes, at a height of some three feet from the ground, allowed the weary owner to creep under and stretch his tired limbs until, the heat of the day having passed, he might resume his journey. To return, however, to the progress of our journey: we arrived in due time at the halfway-station, access to which is obtained by the train passing over a splended iron bridge which here spans one of the branches of the Nile. This magnificent structure is the work of an English engineer, who, report says, received a deserved recognition of his merit in the form of a munificent present from the late Pacha. To our great surprise, on arriving at the halfway-station we found it to contain a spacious refreshment-room! Here we were marshalled into places by our attentive dragoman, and were soon busily engaged in discussing the merits of what, from its number of courses and dessert, was a dinner in every sense of the word.

Somebody has said that "all animals rejoice at sight of food"-a dictum which we found

true, even of the higher animal Man, who though lord of creation, is never altogether insensible to the attractions of the table. The early hurried breakfast on board, followed as it was by eight hours on the road, had, as may be easily understood, done little to prevent our now doing ample justice to the repast set before us. Our banquet, though plentiful, was at an end ere the time came to return to the train. When seated in the carriages once more, we had time to study the garbs and groups of idlers looking on. All the women were of a poor class, and their dress consisted of a cheap blue cotton material, their heads being covered by a square piece of the same stuff; they almost all wore the long black triangular veil, which is suspended by a rude brass tube-like ornament, reaching from the hair to the meeting of the eyebrows; to this the upper edge of the veil is attached at the centre, so as to allow it to droop under either eye for seeing purposes, but being caught up at its ends round the ears of the wearer, it descends almost to the feet, tapering out at its extremity to a mere point. Twothirds of the face are thus concealed by what the British tars, on first seeing it, irreverently called "a nose-bag!" The usual selling of water, requests for "backshiesch," &c., already described, were again present, and served to amuse us until the signal was given to "take a fresh departure," as sailors call a fresh start. The fierce heat of the sun, now at its greatest intensity, rendered the following two or three hours' journey none of the pleasantest. The absence of curtains from our carriage windows was a great inconvenience, and we were forced to suffer by being covered by the clouds of dust that entered by the open windows, rather than adopt the alternative of closing the latter to

the exclusion of air. As the day wore on we naturally became rather weary of the length of the journey, and began to peer anxiously into the distance, in the hopes of obtaining a distant glimpse of Cairo or of the far-famed Pyramids. The desire of seeing the Pyramids being the motive of our excursion, it became stronger as we were lessening more and more the space separating us from that goal. After many false alarms, and much consequent amusement, the Pyramids were at last really" sighted;" although the fact of what we saw being such was at the first doubted, owing to our ignorance as to how such structures would look when seen from a great distance. Instead of the triangular face of the quadrangular structure we were looking out for, we had here what appeared to be two cone-topped pillars of gigantic proportions, such as might have supported some fabled Herculanean gate! The difficulty of accounting for these objects, otherwise than by concluding them to be the Pyramids, caused their claim to that distinction to be finally admitted. Cairo was at length announced, and right glad we were that the hot, dusty journey was at an end. Extricating ourselves and our not very cumbrous luggage from the train we drove to Shepherd's Hotel. This famous resting-place for overland route passengers has, I believe, been burned down since the date of our visit, and it is to be devoutly hoped that its successor can boast of more supervision than the old one seemed to possesss. Our first impressions of this house were not favourable, as we saw it under circumstances of great crowding, which perhaps accounts for the difficulty of getting hold of a waiter, or the still greater one of getting him to give his attendance!

sunbeams that sent its glance of warmth and love upon earth. Here some of the first-born atoms of existence were ushered into this world; here first fell the sweetness of the morning dew; from hence was absorbed the early moisture from the grateful earth; here first sprang up the children of her loving bosomthe grass, the herb, and the tree; and here their seeds grew again upon the virgin soil around them. All along the new-found shores the water vegetations discovered quiet nooks to grow in, the little lives of the deep found a place to cling to, and ere long the great fishes sported on its sandy banks. Here, midst the tangled bush, the first birds chirruped out their joyous ongs; in its sheltered vales, on its sunny slopes, the happy cattle pastured in freedom; smidst the rocky clefts and fissures the unmolested reptiles glided at their leisure, and the beasts of prey found food in plenty round its teeming brow. Did man first inhale the breath of heaven amidst the rugged lands that form the outworks of this mighty bulwark of the earth? Was his only commandment here broken, and his first knowledge of good and evil gained in this early Paradise? Was it from hence that he was driven out by the chastening hand of his Creator from the burning gardens he had vainly thought his own? Did his thoughts turn to a knowledge of his God as the golden sunbeams glittered on high, up the summit of the mount, long before they shone more feebly on his degraded home, or did he wander up and down upon the earth careless of all save his life for to-day and to-morrow?" Leaving these speculations, our author surveys, as it were, creation from the high standpoint he has chosen, and following the Mosaical account day by day in its now generally received sense of a period of unknown time. "Let us for a moment look back upon what had been upon the blank from which this globe was rising. Imagination can scarcely grasp a world in darkness-80 dark that the human eye, if it had been there, could have dwelt on no object; when there were no forms, no shadows, no reflection, refraction or defraction; when chlorine and hydrogen gases had not combined, but hovered separate and distinct in the darkness around, or when the water had not decomposed sufficiently to liberate its hydrogen, and when the chlorine gases were still absorbed in the all-prevailing deep; when there was no vapour for vegetation to flourish in, and no herb to consume the vapour; when chlorine gas and oxide of carbon had not united beneath the genial light, and when, in consequence, there was no colourall dark, dismal, and chaotic," The division of the waters completed (to follow our author): "All around this globe the action was even and uniform, there was nothing unshapely in the firmament, there was nothing unequal upon earth; all was adjusted beneath the curbed deep with an ever-even measurement; while above the canopy of air thin, transparent, yielding and powerful, flowed in equal streams all round the

rising earth, gathering the cold from the poles, and warming them from its bosom, raising the waves in its haste or smoothing them in its calmness, was gradually getting luminous and preparing the Heaven for the great event which was to follow this the second day of creation." Looking at the traces left of the creation of the second day in the present configuration of the earth and the present action of the sea, Mr. Malet observes: "Far away in Central Asia are the snow-capped summits of the mountains which first grew out from the sea; here peeped out those massive mounds which first saw the light of day, and offered their breasts as a bulwark against the beating wave. Here the waves first met with opposition, and flung their angry foam on high to fall not again on the bosom it had left, but to carry in its foamy spray atoms to aid the growth of its prison walls. There was no refuse then to wash away; the hardening rock had but just emerged from its birthplace, blue and bare, manufactured in darkness, with no vegetable or animal life; no organic matter to aid its consistency or to give it a covering, but all pressed together by a long and never intermitted weight of water; it arose even as those rocks arise which can be seen on the north and west of Ireland, or just emerging from the water in the Adriatic Sea-bare rocks, upon which the surging wave still beats and rushes over." Taking the gigantic mountain regions of Central Asia as the first which arose in this hemisphere, our author likens these confused masses of mountains to the confusion which we see amongst the clouds when the wind is on the change. Varied heights produce distinct and separate masses of moisture-one stratum thin and filmy, one blown into whirling tails, another into white straight lines, while the lowest evince the agitation of the atmosphere by running into jutting capes and white-capped promontories. There are whirls in the air to produce these appearances, and there were, according to the original and beautiful theory of our author, whirls in the water to produce these mounds, which whirls he considers were produced by the action of the winds, which even at the present day prevail in the regions referred to from the south-west for one season, and from the north-east for another.

Supposing these to be the normal conditions that these currents have been blowing for ever, that these winds affected the currents of the then waters as they do at the present, those meetings of currents were not like the little meetings of present days. There was a wide, uninterrupted space for the breath to blow over, and a wide expanse of water for the currents to flow over. Here was a meeting-place, and here that meeting produced the natural results in eddies and in The whirls and the eddies, seizing those mixtures of all matters in solution, gathered them into places where the currents permitted them on their confines, and within the circle of their embraces. Anyone who likes to study the effects of whirls and eddies can see the same operations performing at the present time in any moving water.

whirls.

Blue, hard, and strong the dry land appeared, offering its breast to oppose the waters, and to prove that "it was good." Thus the currents of water were turned aside; the streams from the south-west could no longer pass the monstrous barrier they had heaped up, and the current from the north-east could no longer meet them on the first disputed grounds: but their dispute was not over; the south-west current came up from the west over the present Persia, from the north-east over the present Pegu, and meeting its adversary on other terms, and with divided strength, built up the continued range of the Himalaya mountains on one side, and finished the great Hindoo Koosh on the other. The winds, still blowing from their normal points, blew over these obstacles, and aided the water-currents in forming the foundations of the Stanovoi mountains, ending in Behring Straits [I may as well say here, that I do not insist upon winds and currents acting together: it has been clearly explained by authors that they do not]. Strong currents coming down here from the north built up the mountains of Kamschatka; a troubled and uncertain sea raised the China hills, and continued its work through Pegu, Siam, and the Eastern Archipelago.

While the currents of water-according to Mr. Malet's theory, were forming the Highlands of Siberia, the Steppes of Tartary and of Khiryitz; the north-east current turning westerly along these obstructions built up the Ural, and formed the rough region of the Oronboorg. Nor was it only in the north and east of Asia that the foundations of the mountains were being laid, the author gives the same origin to the great Caucasian range, the Syrian hills, the mountains of Arabia, and the highlands of Abyssinia; he believes that the labour of Creation was going on all over the sphere, and that a sort of relationship or co-relation existed in the growth of lands.

Asia had a centre, Europe a similar one on a smaller scale in Switzerland. The Alps may correspond with the mountains of Napal, the Bohemian hills with the Ilanovoi, the Hartz mountains with the Altai, the hills of Norway with the Ural, the Pyrenees with the Palestine, the Jura with the Beloochistan, and the Appennines with the Syidra range in India. In both regions the centre evinces similar grand functions of wind and water, similar forces, operating on watery

But while interrupted currents and shifting eddies are presumed to have laid the foundation on the Asiatic side,

crossing Behring Straits other forces were at work; on the American side a steady current flowed for continued ages from west to east, and built up the Rocky Mountains and the Andes over 130 degrees of latitude. There was a disturbing cause in about 20 degrees north, but the line was resumed again on the equator, and carried on till it reached the present rugged regions of Cape Horn.

In this way our author suggests that the founda

tions of the dry land were raised. It will be perceived that his ideas are contrary to the received opinions of geologists, who, while confidently asserting the first formed solid ground to have been granite, give it an igneous origin. "Basalt and granite are the first dry lands upon which the herb and the tree grew and the light of heaven first gleamed." Both contain similar mixtures. "Basalt is a hard, colourless, dark rock, such as would be formed from the water ere light gave her colours to the world." It is of fine grain, and occurs in horizontal, vertical, or columnar forms, both of which first frequently occur in the same formations, to the perplexity of geologists, who are still unagreed as to the natural cause of the shape of the columns in the Giant's Causeway. Mr. Malet's simple and most feasible explanation is, as far as we are aware, original, and conveys to our mind the most clear conception of the primal formation of these and similar basaltic shapes.

If (says the writer) a heavy, porous weight is placed upon a soft matter, that matter will escape from below the weight through the first orifice that

opens. Suppose then a mass of liquid mud, the washings of troubled seas collected in a basin of rock at covering of a firmer matter is collected. As this the bottom of the sea, and over this liquid mud a covering sinks by its own weight and by the pressure of the water over it, the liquid mud forces its way up through the covering, which sinks down in proportion to the quantity of mud that has risen. The nature of this rise was in globules; but as many of them rose together each globule retained its situation; but, being pressed by its neighbour, each assumed the shape of an hexagonal prism. Each globule then attained the height above the substance that covered it, which the pressure demanded or the quantity of mud allowed. The perpendicular rise being unobstructed some globules became taller than others, and some had unequal sides.

The author conceives that for an unknown length of time, the pressure was renewed and the supply came up-that the original holes through which the mud escaped being the weakest point of the covering, the globules of each succeeding season were forced up through them. "The hectagon of the previous year had now become a firm mass, so that the fresh mud