but a curlew. The bird has not been seen by modern travellers, having deserted the country, from the failure of some particular food, or other cause. Mineralogy. The mineralogy of Egypt is not opulent, nor does it seem ever to have produced any of the metals. A mountain towards the Red Sea is styled that of emeralds; and even now the best emeralds are by the Persians called those of Said, or Upper Egypt: but the mines are no longer worked, and even the spot seems unknown*. Wad has published an account of Egyptian fossils, from ancient fragments in the museum of Cardinal Borgia at Yeietri. They are of red granite; white granite with hornblende; grey felspar, and black hornblendef- The porphyry seems petrosilex with spots of felspar. There is also a little fragment, with hieroglyphics, of micaceous schistus, consisting of brownish black mica: other remains are of iand-stone, and sand-stone brescia, felspar, serpentine, lapis ollaris, white marble with veins of silver mica, swine-stone, what is called green basalt by the Italians, and jasper of various kinds; with topaz, or the chrysolite of the ancients, amethyst, rock crystal, calccdony, onyx, carntlian, heliotrope, obsidian, lazulite; but there seem to be none of emerald. Many are of basalt, or the Ethiopic stone of Herodotus and Strabo ; Pliny adding that the native wold means iron: the Egyptian is sometimes a grunsten, being black hornblende with veins oi felspar; and particles of hornblende are visible in all these basalts. These notices become interesting, as the Egyptians were the first inventors of sculpture and architecture, and the original materials may justly excite curiosity. Besides the natron lakes, there are some mineral springs, and one of salt water near Cairo, which is supposed to have medical virtues. The whole country may be regarded as one natural curiosity. In the travels of Mr. Bruce there are several valuable articles of new and authentic information, which might have been presented to the public in a small volume or two. But, in a spirit of universal compilation, he has disgraced his work with innumerable gross errors. Dr. Vincent has observed, that he has even confounded the gulf of Persia with the Red Sea; and Gossellin has added, that he has confounded the Isle of Topazes (those of the ancieina were yellow green, Pliny 37 3.) with the mountain of emeralds. Hence his ideas concerning the emeralds of the ancients are beneath notice. The ancient emeralds were confessedly harder than those of Peru, but those from Ceylon are thought to be green sapphires, the hardness being 16, while the Peruvian emerald is 12 (diamond 20.) Pliny 37. 5. classes the emerald next to the pearl and diamond; and says they were seldom or never engraved, to avoid injuring their beauty: bur the hardness of the Scythian above Bactria, as he explains, that is from the Imaus, and of the Egyptian, was such that they could not be cut. Quapropier decreto bominum iis parcitur, scalpi retitis Quanquam Scytbicorum Egyptiorumquc duritia tanta est, ut nequeant val nerari. lib. 37. cap. 5. It further appears from his description that the idea concerning the superiority of the emeralds of Peru is wholly erroneous. This he says is the syenites of Werner, an absurd appellation, for Pliny tells us that the syenites was a red stone. It is in fact only an ancient name for red granite but mineralogists are rarely versed in erudition. Ogilby in his Africa, 1671, fol. p. 97. gravely informs us, that the red (felspar) denotes fire; the crystaline (quartz/ air; the bluish opake (quartz) water; and the black (mica) earth: so that in their obelisks of granite the Egyptians comprised symbols of the four elements. 4 E NUBIA. BETWEEN Egypt and Abyssinia is an extensive tract, about 600 miles in length, and S00 in breadth, by the ancients styled Ethiopia, but more precisely by the Arabian geographers called Nubia. The isle of Meroe was formed by the junction of the Astaboras with the Nile; and it is not improbable that a southern channel, described by Ptolemy, may since have been dried up by the encroaching desert. The greatest part of Nubia is occupied by wide deserts on the east and west; but on the Nile are two states of some little consequence, Dongola on the north, and Sennaar on the south. Sennaar was in a state of servile war, the slaves having usurped the government, when Mr. Browne visited Darfur. Bruce describes his interview with the king, or rather chief, and his distinguished haram. In August and September the country around the city presents a pleasant verdure : but the people are deceitful and ferocious. The general dress is a long blue shirt; and the food mostly millet, though there be no want of cattle. Dongola does not merit a description: and the whole of Nubia is a miserable country, inhabited by a miserable people.* • See the Travels of Poncet, a French physician, 1698, in Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits, 1. 192. Near Sennaar were forests of acacia, full of paroquets. The trees, p. 203, seem to be the cotton trees of America. MAHOMETAN STATES IN THE NORTH. TRIPOLI TUNIS.—ALGIEB.MOROCCO. City Of Tripoli. These are Tripoli, Tunis, Algier, and Morocco. Of these Tripoli is the most extensive, and the least known. The territories reach from the gulf of Cabes, the lesser Syrtis of antiquity, to the confines of Egypt, being chiefly the Africa proper, and Lybia of the ancients; but a great part is desert. Tripoli does not appear to be ancient, the nearest situations being the Sabatra and Oea of antiquity, while perhaps Tripoli is the port of Pisidon of Ptolemy.* The metropolis of Arabian Africa was Cairoan, about fifty miles to the south of Tunis, where resided the governors appointed by the califs of Damascus: and about the year 800 they assumed royal authority, and the dynasty of the Fatimites passed from Africa to Egypt. The Zeirites afterwards reigned at Cairoan. Tripoli was besieged by the Egyptians, A. D. 877, and A. D. 1050. In 1146 it was seized by the Normans from Sicily, who held this coast till 1159. The power of the Turks is recent, only dating from 1514, when Barbarossa seized Algier; but it has continued more peculiarly at Tripoli,f where the Bey was considered as immediately subject to the Porle, a Turkish pasha superintending his conduct; and the combined taxations have effectually ruined the country. Famine is also no unusual circumstance; and the depredations of the Arabs form an additional calamity. The town of Tripoli is in a low situation, but to the south are plantations of date trees and verdant hills, which relieve the sameness of the scene. It is in a state of rapid decay, scarcely four miles in circum It was built after the age of that geographer, but is mentioned as the birth-place of the emperor Severus. The name according to D'Anville was originally that of the province, as containing three cities. When the Arabs entered Africa in the seventh century they encountered considerable resistance at Tripoli. See Gibbon, ix. 450. The emperor Charles V. took Tripoli, and resigned it to the knights of Malta, who soon lost this possession, but their proximity has stifled the piracy of the Tripolitans. In 1686 this city was humbled by the bombardment of a French fleet, and sent an embassy of submission to Louis XIV. Lucas in the Proceedings of the African Society, 1790, 4to. p. 48. ferencc, and thinly peopled; the ancient castle, though still the resi dence of the reigning family, being in a ruinous condition. At present the Hey seems to be honoured or disgraced with the title and functions of Pasha: while the prince's eldest son has the title of Bey. Even the tributary Arabs are often in a stale of insurrection; and the month of December, when the grass begins to present sufficient forage, is a common season of warfare. There are olive and date trees, white thorn, and Spanish broom; but the fields of grain are few and scanty. Towards Mesurata the vegetation is more luxuriant; but of the ancient Cyrene, an interesting spot, there is no recent account. Tunis. Next on the west is Tunis, the central region of northern Africa, the western part of the proper Africa of antiquity, and formerly the chief seat of Carthaginian power. In the middle ages Tripoli was subject to Tunis, which was seized by Barbarossa in 1533. Of this kingdom, as it is called, Dr. Shaw has given a good description, having travelled through the greater part of it; and it is to be regretted that he did not visit Tripoli, still an obscure region in geography. In the summer the Bey of Tunis resides in the northern part, and in winter retires to the south, where there is a lake of considerable extent, the Palus Tritonis of antiquity. The chief river is the Mejerda, the Bagrada of classical repute. The chain of Atlas seems here to terminate, in cape Bon, being called the mountains of Megala, Uzelett, &c. but our author's chief pursuit being antiquities, the natural objects are treated with less care. Among the mineral productions he has observed alabaster, crystal, boles, plumbago, iron, lead. The cattle are small and slender, and the horses have degenerated. The sheep of Zaara are as tall as fallow deer. There arc lions, panthers, hyenas, jaccais, and other ferocious animals. The manufactures are velvets, silks, linen, and red caps worn by the common people. In general the Tunisians are renowned as the most polite and civilized among the Mahometans of Africa, a character for which they are probably indebted to the situation of their country, for many ages the scat of the chief African powers. The ruins of Carthage, not far to the north-east of Tunis, have been accurately illustrated by Dr. Shaw.* The town of Tunis is about three miles in circumference, containing about ten thousand houses, or perhaps 50,000 souls. The chief exports seem to be woolen stuff's, red caps, gold-dust, lead, oil, Morocco leather: and the commerce with France was considerable. ALGIER. Algier may be regarded as the last Mahometan state on the Mediterranean, for Morocco is chiefly extended along the Atlantic. In the thirteenth century Africa was first divided into those petty royalties, which still subsist with few variations. In 1514 Barbarossa seized Algier, which afterwards became a noted seat of pirates; and one of the Dcys candidly declared that the country was a nest of robbers, and he was their chief. This city is supposed by Shaw to be the ancient Iconium, and is not above a mile and a half in circuit, while the inhabitants are exaggerated to more than a hundred thou *This citv was founded about 1250 or 1300 years before the birth of Cluisr, a« appears from Herodotus and the Parian Chronicle. sand:* but probably half that number would be nearer the truth. It is ludicrous to behold this power exacting tribute from the maritime states of christendom, while two ships of war maintained at the general expense, might block up the port, and extinguish the claims and the piracy. The antiquities of this kingdom have been accurately examined by Dr. Shaw, whose work is however more full of erudition, than of solid and interesting knowledge. The chief river is the Shellif, rising from the northern side of the Atlas, as the Wal Jedi from the southern, and afterwards bending to the west, being the Chinala of antiquity, while the latter is the Zabus. The kingdom of Algier chiefly comprises the Numidia and part of the Mauretania of the ancieuts, being bounded on the south by Getulia, and the chains of the Atlas, called Lowat and Ammer; which are however by Shaw's account of small elevation, and the grand ridges of the Atlas are towards the west, in the kingdom of Morocco. The mountain of Jurjura is the highest in Barbary, being about eight leagues in length, in a north-east and south-west direction, full of rocks and precipices, but only covered with snow during the winter. This mountain is about sixty British miles to the south-east of Algier, and perhaps forms a part of the real Atlantic chain, which in this direction will terminate more to the west than above supposed; but it at any rate expires in gentle elevations, though the sea coast from the river Boobcrik to near Bona be mountainous and rocky. The productions are in general the same with those of Tunis. There are many salt rivers and springs, and there is a mountain of salt near the lake, called Marks: there are likewise several mineral springs; and earthquakes are not unknown. Morocco. Of the empire, or rather kingdom, of Morocco, an interesting account has lately been published by an English traveller, who from his medical character, had access even to the harams of the king, and one of the princes. This nominal empire consists indeed of several small kingdoms, as the old English monarchy was composed of the seven kingdoms of the heptarchy; but the style of emperor seems to have arisen in the fourteenth century, when the sultan of Morocco was for a short time sovereign of all the northern states of Africa. The proper style is that of sharif, or sherif, derived from a supposed descendent of Mahomet, who seized the sceptre about the year 1500. The kingdom of Fez has been united to Morocco, since it first became an independent sovereignty in the thirteenth century; while that of Tiemesin was joined to the deydom of Algier. The sovereigns of Morocco being of the house of Merini, they were styled Al Merinis, and corruptly by the Spanish, and other authors, kings of Balmerin, Shaw, p. 68. Between cape Spartei and Arzilla, the inland mountains are observed from the sea, covered with snow even in May. Sail. Dir. p. 1. What the Moors call Shott or Sbatt is a sandy plain, but sometimes overflowed, and which receives five smail rivers. Shaw, 114. It is to be regretted that this author was so zealous an antiquary, whence his work is chiedy valaable for the illustration of ancient geography. The petrifying spring, ib. 2J2. led the fabling Arabs to imagine cities and their inhabitants tinned iut* stone. |