Hieroglyphical Fragments, 12$ 



in all probability, the Thoth of each year : the second tetrad has 

 an open square and an oval ; and the third a long parallelogram, 

 which occurs, as it ought to do, in the Mesore of the pillar. 

 But Mechir has the garden instead of the open square and oval 5 

 yet it is perfectly well determined, and liable to no doubt or 

 ambiguity whatever from the context : so that whether it was 

 an error of the engraver, or a different dialect of the language, 

 must remain for the present doubtful. 



The tablet from the tomb at Beni Hassan is also singular for 

 the sublime nature of the subject to which it relates, and as a 

 genuine specimen of the high importance which ought to be 

 attached to the interpretation of all the mysteries of Egypt. 

 It is no less than a child's spelling book, in the Greek cha- 

 racter however : had it happily been in the Egyptian character 

 it would have been seriously invaluable. It begins with the 

 alphabet from A to O ; then from f2 to A ; then A, O, B, if, 

 in direct and inverse order alternately, that the child's memory 

 might not assist his perception too much : then we have BA, 

 BE, BH, BI, BO, BT, BO ; FA, and so forth to ^O; then 

 BAB, BEB, BHB, and the rest of the syllables similarly formed, 

 as far as AHA ; with which the child's first lesson appears to 

 have ended. This at least we may probably infer, that the 

 tenant of the tomb was probably a schoolmaster or school- 

 mistress : at any rate that he had learned to read and write, and 

 that his survivors were proud of his qualifications. 



* * * * 



Park Square, March 14. 



On the Climate of the Canary Islands, 



The following remarks on the climate of the Canary Islands 

 are an epitome of the portion, allotted to that subject, in the 

 very valuable treatise of M. von Buch, entitled, *' Physica- 

 lische Beschreibung der Canarischen Inseln." 



1. Temperature of the Atmosphere. — It was highly to be 

 desired that a correct mean temperature, at the level of the sea, 

 should be obtained in some latitude, which might connect 

 the valuable and exact determinations made by Humboldt 

 within the tropics, with the many careful registers which are 



