40 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 17gi. 



nishes the properest ground on which to form the comparison : and the particu- 

 lars are as follow : 



Carmichael. 



Aleppo to Hagla 11'' 5°' 



Hagla to Ain il Koom 37 30 



Ain il Koom to Uklet Hauran 80 10 



Uklet Hauran to Al Kadder 53 50 



Al Kadder to Rackama, opposite Mesjid Ali. 21 45 



Aleppo to Rackama 204 20 205 44 197 30 



On the Little Desert there are 1 examples of time, from Mr. Irwin in 1781, 

 and Mr. Holford in 1780 ; both of whom kept regular journals. 



Irwin. Holford. 



Aleppo to Ain il Koom 52'' 0™ 4b'' 27° 



Ain il Koom to Annah on the Euphrates 76 80 15 



AleppotoAnnah 128 126 42 



It appears by the journals, that Mr. Irwin deviated from the usual track in the 

 first part of his route ; and that Mr. Holford did the like in the latter part of 

 his ; each to avoid an enemy ; so that it may be presumed, that the deviations 

 nearly balanced each other. Between Annah and Bagdad, these gentlemen made 

 part of their journey in the caravan of loaded camels, and partly with light 

 camels (that is, without any other load than the rider.) Mr. Irwin employed 

 62-i- hours; but the last 15 hours, on light camels, were at an accelerated rate 

 of half a mile per hour, or -i- part, above the ordinary rate ; and this accelerated 

 rate should add 3 hours to the 15, to reduce it to caravan time; making Qb\ 

 hours instead of Q'l^. Mr. Holford's journey, by the same ratio, must be 

 reckoned at 08 : but as this part of the 2 journeys is obviously too inaccurate to 

 draw any conclusions from, in the way of comparison, Mr. R. makes use only 

 of Mr. Irwin's time, when he calculates the rate of the camel's travelling. 



We have now seen, that on a journey of abbut 200 hours, between Aleppo 

 and Mesjid Ali, 2 accounts ditlcr only 1 hour 24 minutes ; and a 3d differs 

 from the mean of the other two 7i hours. And we may observe, that if the 

 stage from Aleppo to Hagla be taken out of the question, the number of Mr. 

 Hunter's hours would be nearer on an equality with the others by about an hour 

 and a quarter. The reason of the different reports of the distance between 

 Aleppo and Hagla appears to be, that travellers commonly join the caravans 

 either at Hagla or on the road to it ; and they, travelling by a quicker convey- 

 ance than camels afford, and then adjusting the time to the caravan rate, make 

 different estimates of the distance. Or there may be some other cause which 

 has not been explained. Four different persons give the time as follows : Car- 

 michael 11*' 5'"; Capper ll"24'"; Hunter lo'' O'" ; Holford Q^ Vl"\ So that 

 the proper point of out-et in making the comparison, is Hagla. And, reckon- 



