110 YIEWS OF NATURE. 



(21) p. 9. " One connected sea of sand " 



As we may regard the social Erica as furnishing one con- 

 tinuous vegetable covering spread over the earth's surface, 

 from the mouth of the Scheldt to the Elbe, and from the ex- 

 tremity of Jutland to the Harz mountains, so may we likewise 

 trace the sea of sand continuously through Africa and Asia, 

 from Cape Blanco to the further side of the Indus, over an 

 extent of 5,600 miles. The sandy region mentioned by 

 Herodotus, which the Arabs call the Desert of Sahara, and 

 which is interrupted by oases, traverses the whole of Africa 

 like a dried arm of the sea. The valley of the Nile is the 

 eastern boundary of the Lybian desert. Beyond the Isthmus 

 of Suez and the porphyritic, syenitic, and greenstone rocks of 

 Sinai begins the Desert mountain plateau of Nedschd, which 

 occupies the whole interior of the Arabian Peninsula, and 

 is bounded to the west and south by the fruitful and more 

 highly favoured coast-lands of Hedschaz and Hadhramaut. 

 The Euphrates forms the eastern boundary of the Arabian 

 and Syrian desert. The whole of Persia, from the Caspian 

 Sea to the Indian Ocean, is intersected by immense tracts of 

 sand (bejabari] , among which we may reckon the soda and 

 potash Deserts of Kerman, Seistan, Beludschistan, and Mekran. 

 The last of these barren wastes is separated by the Indus 

 from the Desert of Moultan. 



(22) p. 9. " The western portion of Mount Atlas" 



The question of the position of the Atlas of the ancients has 

 often been agitated in our own day. In making this inquiry, 

 ancient Phoenician traditions are confounded with the state- 

 ments of the Greeks and Romans regarding Mount Atlas at a 

 less remote period. The elder Professor Ideler, who combined a 

 profound knowledge of languages with that of astronomy and 

 mathematics, was the first to throw light on this obscure sub- 

 ject ; and I trust I may be pardoned if I insert the communi- 

 cations with which I have been favoured by this enlightened 

 observer. 



" The Phoenicians ventured at a very early period in the 

 world's history to penetrate beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. 

 They founded Gades and Tartessus on the Spanish, and Lixus, 

 together with many other cities on the Mauritanian coasts of 

 the Atlantic Ocean. They sailed northward along these shores 



