ABIEL GAZELLE. 39 



servatories at Kew ; how vastly more interesting would 

 it be to behold each in its own home ; surrounded by all 

 the accessories of surface-form, of atmospheric pheno- 

 mena, of vegetation, of animal life, which properly belong 

 to it, and without which it is merely an isolated object. 

 Let us select a few examples. 



To see the ariel gazelle, accompany a troop of Bedouin 

 Arabs across the great Syrian desert. Grand and awe- 

 inspiring in its boundless immensity, unearthly and ocean- 

 like, the eye shrinks from contemplating the empty, cheer- 

 less solitude, and vainly wanders round for some object 

 which may relieve the sense of utter loneliness and desola- 

 tion. Across the plain, far away towards the west, where 

 the fiery glow of the setting sun brings out their forms 

 in dark relief, a long interrupted line of columns is seen 

 stretching away below the horizon ; while, as the troop 

 approaches, prostrate heaps of ruins appear, groups of 

 broken shafts and bases of columns, huge platforms of 

 stone, and fallen capitals, while here and there a solitary 

 monumental pillar rears itself above the rest in solemn 

 majesty. At the end of the sandy plain, the eye at 

 length rests upon the lofty colonnades of the Temple of 

 the Sun, encompassed by a dark elevated mass of ruined 

 buildings; but beyond, all around, right and left, as far 

 as the eye can reach, extends the vast level naked flat of 

 the great Desert, over which the eye runs in every direc- 

 tion, exploring the boundless horizon, without discovering 

 a human being, or a vestige that tells of existing human 

 life. Naked, solitary, unlimited space extends around. 



