Description of the Cave of Trophonius and the Shrine at Delphi.... .... 148 Observations on the actual State of the Troad ........ 155 On the external use of Oil as an efficient remedy for the 170 Journal of a Passage from Alexandria to Marseilles.... 177 Journal of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Ship the Melpomene, Captain Peter Parker, in a violent gale of wind Lazaretto at Marseilles 195 204 Description of the Temple erected by Constantine on the site of our Saviour's Sepulchre Declaration of Francesco Salvadore Antonio, Guardian of the Holy Land, &c. .... Translation of the above 209 .. 218 221 LETTERS FROM EGYPT. LETTER I. TO SIR G. ET, BART. DEAR E, Damietta, Sept. 10, 1817. TRAVELLERS from all other countries who visit Egypt, seem anxious to disseminate the most exag gerated idea of its treasures and natural riches. Some of the narratives, which have been published on this subject, are wilder than the fictions of the Arabian Nights; though as far as regards the productive power of the soil, if the surface spread over every part of the Delta, resembles that immediately adjoining this city, it would be difficult to say too much in respect of its fertility. The abundance of the annual produce is however necessarily dependent on two causes; a copious discharge from the river, or what is called a good Nile, and an equal distribution of the water. To effect the latter object, it is absolutely necessary that VOL. II. B the canals should be cleaned every year, and the dykes carefully repaired. The general interest exacts, that the sluices should be all opened at the same time; but individual rapacity is seldom influenced by any considerations for the common good; and you may imagine the confusion and misery produced by a disregard of this principle, in a year when the Nile is but scantily supplied. Whenever that happens, the villages bordering on the river anticipate the season for cutting the dams; a measure which is of course contested by those situated more remote: the inevitable consequence of such a struggle must be to dissipate the stream in useless channels, and to render what was before scarce, totally unattainable. In favourable years the crops are astonishingly great. I am absolutely afraid to mention the amount raised on a quantity of land equivalent to one of our acres: but the cultivators appear very unskilful or very negligent in cleaning their corn; for in the principal granaries and storehouses which I have been shewn, on taking a handful of any description of grain, it proved on examination to be nearly one-fourth dust. Their implements of husbandry are also, almost universally, of a very rude and unimproved construction, and the peasants em |