AND LOWER EGVPT. 5J 



the vessel was gliding gently along a surface which 

 a light gale scarcely ruffled, and we could not tire 

 of feasting our eyes with the view of vast plains 

 embellished with all the charms of nature, and by 

 the diversity of the labours of agriculture. 



On the morning of the 25th we found ourselves 

 close on Pantalaria, an island of much greater 

 length than breadth, elevated in the middle, and 

 terminating in a low point at each of its extremi- 

 ties. It is inhabited, and abundantly fertile. An 

 officer of the ship who, on a former voyage, had 

 been ashore there, informed me that there was but 

 one single spring in the whole island, but that on 

 the summit of the highest of its mountains, that 

 is, nearly in the centre of the island, there was a 

 lake of considerable extent. This lake is undoubt- 

 edly the crater of an extinguished volcano, for the 

 same officer had found on the spot all the indica- 

 tions of it, such as the lavas, pumice-stones, &c. 

 &c. The pass of Panlalaria is formidable to mari- 

 ners, especially in winter, for experience has taught 

 them that the seas which surround it are seldom 

 navigated without meeting a violent gale of wind. 



In the evening we saw some swallows : we were 

 four leagues distant from Pantalaria, with the wind 

 at east. On the 26th, at three o'clock afternoon, 

 wc entered the port of Malta, one of the largest 



e 4 and 



