4 VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
the saying is, and annominated Noah’s 
Ark. This is followed by a dissertation 
upon the mount Ararat, a happy subject, 
which enables Mr. Clarke to transcribe 
age after page from Sir Walter Ra- 
a History of the World, and from 
the Asiatic Researches; he carries us 
not only to Armenia, but to Cashgar, 
Cashmir, Castwar, C’hasgar and C’- 
hasagar; to Sheybar-Tag or Sheybar- 
Tau; to Vami-Nagari or Vami-Gram ; 
and to Buddha-Bamiyan, whose venera- 
ble title has been maliciously distorted 
by the Mussulmans into But-Bamiyan ; 
that Bamiyan which is called Sharma- 
Bamiyan or Sham-Bamiyan, for in 
Sanscrit Sharma and Shama are syno- 
nimous} as in this volume are Sanscrit 
and Sham. He travels between Bahlac 
and Cabul, as far as Bahlac and Badac- 
shan, to Balikh and Balkh Bamiyan, to 
Cala Roh or the Black Mountain, and 
to Tuct Suleiman or the throne of Solo- 
mon; he astonishes us by the depth and 
darkness of erudition, we must not say his 
erudition, and he overpowersus by the au- 
thority of the Puranasand thebooksof the 
Banddhists, of the Pharangh.Jehangeri, 
andthe Buddha-dharma-charya-sindhuh. 
Yet more Arkana of Arkaiology, for 
upon the principles of this great school 
this must bethe true orthography. The 
historian of maritime discovery returns 
to the ark, the Thebath or Theba of the 
learned Theban: the Mundane Egg, the 
Argo, the Boutus, the Cibotus, the 
Centaurus, the Archeius, the Amphi- 
prumnais, the Laris, Isis, Rhea and 
Atargatis of the antients, thus the author 
informs us; to which we add, from the 
stores of our own knowledge, the Arkut 
of the Ohios, the Shawanoes, the Utewas, 
the Nadovessians, the Messegagues, the 
Chickasaws, the Cherokees, the Chok- 
taws and Catawbas. He adduces new 
proofs of the universality of the deluge, 
and supports the veracity of Moses by 
the evidence of Mr. Maurice, who per- 
sonally examined two teeth of an hippo- 
potamus, and the entire tusk of an 
elephant, which were found buried 
thirty feet under ground by some work- 
men of Mr. Trimmer, at Brentford, six 
miles frém London. He gives us also 
an account of ships actually built after 
the proportions of the ark, which proved 
the most complete and perfect models 
ever constructed for vessels of burthen. 
Surely. the admiralty will not permit. 
so valuable a hint as this to be lost We 
trust they will refer it to general Ben 
tham, and that we may soon see a royal 
Noah in the navy. But, we must con- 
fess, we doubt the prudence of Mr. 
Clarke in publishing so important an idea 
during war; we will not suspect the 
loyalty of this gentleman, yet the times 
are serious, we are threatened with in- 
vasion, and a fleet of arks would be far 
more formidable than rafts or gun-boats, 
especially if it be considered Ris pecu- 
liarly they are adapted for transporting 
the enemy’s cavalry. 
Mr. Clarke has got into the labyrinth 
of fabulous history, and he mistakes 
every spider’s thread for a clue. Here is 
a great quagmire through which no road 
has been made; Messrs. Bryant, Maurice 
and Co. have thrown down waggon loads 
of rubbish in it, and here comes this 
labourer and stirs about the dust. We 
will pass over the remainder of his 
historical memoir, this miserable patch- 
work of quotations, and examine the 
body of the work. i 
The first section gives a brief sketch 
of maritime history to the commence- 
ment of the fifteenth century. A more 
accurate account of the northern pirates 
might have been obtained from Mr. 
Turner’s history of the Anglo-Saxons, 
a book, which, notwithstanding its de- 
fects of style, is assuredly the most 
laborieus and praise-worthy historical 
work which this country has yet pro- 
duced. A passage is quoted from Ossian, 
after Dr. Henry, to inform us “ of the 
name of the daring prince who first in- 
vented ships and led a colony into Ire- 
land.” Surely it isno longer allowable 
for any, but a Scotchman, to quote 
Ossian as authority ; moreover it inter- 
feres with Noah’s claim, and we are 
therefore surprized to find Larthon 
placed at the head of the antient com- 
pany of ship-carpenters. Of the naval 
power of Catalonia Mr. Clarke has 
gleaned a scanty knowledge from a 
French history of Genoa, which is like 
consulting a French historian for the 
victories of the English. ‘These defects 
however are of little import: the pro- 
gress of maritime discovery, not of 
maritime power, is Mr. Clarke’s subject, 
and ‘whatever preceded the age of the 
infant Don Henrique should have been 
condensed as prefatory matter. 
some omissions we must notice and 
censure. Why are we referred to-an un- 
published appendix for the discovery of 
the Canaries? Was the volume already 
so stuffed with transcription ‘that no 
But. 
