UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 11 



gree of elevation. The same gradation takes place 

 on all other lofty mountains ; and in Frazer's 

 account of the Himalii chain, which separates 

 Thibet from India, there is a long list of English 

 plants that he found there, at the altitude which 

 corresponds with our temperate climate ; such as 

 horse-chesnut, birch and apricot, strawberries, 

 raspberries, lily of the valley, and many others ; 

 and still higher up, he even saw the famous Ice- 

 land lichen. 



6th. Yesterday Mr. Lumley and Mr. Maude 

 dined here ; and in conversing about the new 

 books which Mr. Maude has just brought from 

 London, he spoke very highly of Sir John Mal- 

 colm's ei Sketches of Persia." He mentioned 

 several interesting anecdotes which he found 

 there ; and to entertain Wentworth, he related 

 some of the exploits of Roostem and his won- 

 derful horse Reksh ; of which you shall have the 

 following as a specimen. 



" All countries have their fabulous heroes, 

 and Persia had her Hercules in the renowned 

 Roostem. He undertook the deliverance of his 

 sovereign who was a prisoner in Hyrcania, and 

 set out alone on his good horse Reksh. Fatigued 

 by his first day's journey, he lay down to sleep, 

 having turned his horse into a neighbouring 

 meadow. There Reksh was attacked by a fu- 

 rious lion: but after a short contest, he struck his 



