300 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
shaken with the long donkey-ride. My plants amounted to six 
species in all, none different from what I afterwards saw in crossing 
from Cairo to Suez. Besides the pleasure I derived from the won- 
derful Fossil Forest, the first peep of anything so novelas the 
Desert and its concomitant features was highly gratifying. Every- 
thing was new: the sky and the atmosphere were unlike those of 
any other part of the world, and did not appear as if they ex- 
tended over a soil where either animal or vegetable life could 
exist. In the limestone desert I had no wish to tarry; but 
I should still enjoy a visit to the sandstone wastes of Middle 
and Upper Egypt, which are probably yet more barren, and ac- 
companied by moving sands, of which we here see nothing. 
On re-entering Cairo we passed the Tombs of the Caliphs, for- 
merly wonderful for their eastern beauty and ornament, and still pre- 
senting immense and beautifully decorated Mausolea, but all falling 
to ruin. In the moonlight they are striking objects, from their 
peculiar character and the loveliness of their situation. The 
sunset over the Pyramids was as glorious as the sunrise, and as 
fiery hot; this time, however, we had the green groves and cool- 
looking palaces of the Pacha at Shoobra in the fiery circuit. We 
waited outside the gates to witness the full effect of the moon on 
the city, citadel, minarets, and distant pyramids; but the devo- 
tional feelings of my donkey (who seemed much impressed by the 
tombs of the Caliphs) prevented my enjoying thoroughly the view. 
The entrance to the town was through a once magnificent gate, 
much ornamented, and very grand-looking in the twilight, but 
surrounded by so much wretchedness, squalor, and filth, that it was 
impossible to bestow my admiration on it. 
On the following day I was engaged to dine at the Consul- 
General's, a brother of the Honourable Captain Murray, R-N., 
our acquaintance at Richmond Park, and had barely time to 
dress, when I received a message from Lord Dalhousie informing 
me that he had determined to start at 8 o’clock that night. The 
fact was that, through some mistake of the Telegraph, the Transit — 
passengers were supposed not to have arrived the night before at 
Alexandria. All the luggage had been forwarded, and I was 1n 
