vening space between us and the city. Not having in my own mind at the time any doubts as to the certainty of its being water, and seeing the tall minarets and buildings of Rosetta, with all its groves of dates and sycamores as perfectly reflected by it as by a mirror, insomuch that even the minutest details of the architecture and of the trees might have been thence delineated, I applied to the Arabs to be informed in what manner we were to pass the water. Our interpreter, although a Greek, and therefore likely to have been informed of such a phenomenon, was as fully convinced as any of us that we were drawing near to the water's edge, and became indignant when the Arabs maintained that within an hour we should reach Rosetta by crossing the sands in the direct line we then pursued, and that there was no water. 'What!' said he, giving way to his impatience, 'do you suppose me an idiot to be persuaded contrary to the evidence of my senses?' The Arabs smiling soon satisfied him, and completely astonished the whole party, desiring us to look back upon the desert we had already passed, where we beheld a precisely similar appearance. It was, in fact, the mirage, a prodigy to which every one of

us were then strangers, although it afterwards became more familiar. The view of it afforded us ideas of the horrible despondency to which travellers must sometimes be exposed, who, in traversing the interminable desert, destitute of water, and perishing with thirst, have sometimes this deceitful prospect before their eyes."

H. This is very curious indeed; and I wish I could see it. Is it to be seen no where but in Persia?

U. O. Oh, yes! It is very common in Egypt and other parts of Africa, in Arabia, and some parts of Asiatic Turkey. Something like it has. sometimes been seen on our own shores and those of France, but not with such strong powers of illusion as the true seraub possesses. An ordinary mist sometimes occasions a very remarkable illusion in Persia. It not only makes objects that are seen through it seem so much higher and taller than they really are, that a man who is seen upon the level plain at the distance of a mile and a half appears as tall as a ship's mast, but sometimes it changes in a very extraordinary manner the shapes of the things that are seen through it. As Colonel Johnson seems to have witnessed a stronger in-.

stance than ever I did, I will tell you what he

saw.

As he was descending a height, he beheld in the valley below a mist which rose only a few You above the ground; and beyond the valley he perceived, at the fog, the tops of high mountains, with rocky preciptoes, which seemed at no great distance. On descending slowly towards the mist, he observed a dark object in it, which resembled a distant village; but as he advanced it soon changed its aspect, and assumed that of a long avenue of trees, which seemed to open out as he approached. Colonel Johnson expressed his surprise to his friend at finding such fine trees in a desert where he did not expect to find a village, and in which they had before travelled for several miles without finding any trees at all; but in a few minutes it was found that the view was an illusion; and that the nearest objects in what had seemed the avenue had the appearance of camels with light burdens, on 'one of which a man was mounted. Afterwards, as they seemed to clear the fog, the objects proved, as it was then thought, to be mules laden with bags of grain, and men and

boys walking with them. The Colonel does not seem to have ascertained what it really was that appeared in so many shapes; but he found that the lofty ridge of mountains he had at first seen was nothing more than a bank forty or fifty f high, over which the road lay

105

CHAPTER VI.

THE PERSIAN GULF.

Uncle Oliver. LET us look at the map of Persia to see how the country is circumstanced with regard to water. You observe that in the south-west it is divided from Arabia by a rather narrow arm of the sea, called the Persian Gulf. It has no other sea coast.

Henry. Sir, here is the Caspian Sea!

U. O. It is called a sea, because it is large; but it is properly a great lake. What is a lake? H. A body of water quite surrounded by land.

U. O. And that is the case with the Caspian Sea; which should, in fact, be regarded as the chief of those salt lakes for which Persia is remarkable. With regard to rivers, you see that the country is very badly off. There is no country of Asia, except Arabia, so ill provided with rivers. There is indeed not one river of note, except those on the frontiers which separate it from other countries, as the Tigris, which divides it from Turkey, and the Aras, which