540 COSMOS. 



which was connected with Coptos by means of an admirably 

 made artificial road.* 



All these various mercantile and scientific enterprises of the 

 Lagides were based on an irrepressible striving to acquire 

 new territories and penetrate to distant regions, on an idea of 

 connection and unity, and on a desire to open a wider field of 

 action, by their commercial and political relations. This 

 direction of the Hellenic mind so fruitful in results, and 

 which had been long preparing in silence, was manifested, 

 under its noblest type, in the efforts made by Alexander in his 

 campaign to fuse together the eastern and western worlds. 

 Its extension under the Lagides characterises the epoch which 

 I would here pourtray, and must be regarded as an important 

 advance towards the attainment of a knowledge of the universe 

 in its character of unity. 



As far as abundance and variety in the objects presented to 

 the contemplation are conducive to an increased amount of 

 knowledge, we might certainly regard the intercourse existing 

 between Egypt and distant countries; the scientific exploring- 

 expeditions into Ethiopia at the expense of the government ;f 

 distant ostrich J and elephant hunts ; and the establishment of 



* See the researches of Letronne, on the construction of the canal 

 between the Nile and the Ked Sea, from the time of Neku to the Caliph 

 Omar, or during an interval of more than 1300 years, in the Revue des 

 deux Mondes, t. xxvii. 1841, pp. 215-235. Compare also Letronne, de 

 la Civilisation egyptienne depuis Psammitichus jusqiCa, la conqu&e 

 d'Alexandre, 1845, pp. 16-19. 



^ Meteorological speculations on the remote causes of the swelling of 

 the Nile gave occasion to some of these journeys; since, as Strabo 

 expresses it (lib. xvii. pp. 789 and 790), " Philadelphus was constantly 

 seeking new diversions and new objects of interest from a desire for 

 knowledge and from bodily weakness." 



J Two hunting inscriptions, " one of which principally records the 

 elephant hunts of Ptolemy Philadelphus," were discovered and copied 

 from the colossi of Abusimbel (Ibsambul) by Lepsius during his Egyptian 

 journey (compare, on this subject, Strabo, lib. xvi. pp. 769 and 770 ; Julian, 

 De Nat. Anim., iii. 34, and xvii. 3; Athenseus, v. p. 196). Although In- 

 dian ivory was an article of export from Barygaza, according to the Pen- 

 plus maris Erythrcei, yet, from the statement of Cosmas, ivory would also 

 appear to have been exported from Ethiopia to the western peninsula of 

 India. Elephants have withdrawn more to the south in Eastern Africa, 

 also since ancient times. According to the testimony of Polybius (v. 

 84), when African and Indian elephants were opposed to each other on 

 fields of battle, the sight, smell, and cries of the larger and stronger 



