AND LOWER EGYPT. 6$ 



affection had destined them, no doubt, for lovers, 

 or for husband and wife. 



These catacombs appear likewise to have served 

 as a place of retreat, in times not very remote, to 

 the inhabitants of Malta, when their island be- 

 came a prey to the wars which have frequently 

 scourged it. Two ancient mills are here also pointed 

 out to you, and once more that image, the safe- 

 guard of a credulous people, the statue of St. Paul. 



The island of Malta, situated nearly in the mid- 

 dle of the Mediterranean sea, between Sicily and 

 x\frica, is but seven leagues at its greatest length, 

 and four at its extreme breadth. Properly speaking 

 it is nothing but a rock, almost entirely bare. But 

 it is not of that kind of rock which the keen 

 tooth of time can hardly penetrate, and which 

 suggests the idea of complete aridity. It is a cal- 

 careous stone, extremely white, of a loose texture, 

 of a consistence by no means solid, and which 

 repels not all cultivation. Though most of the 

 numerous islands of the same sea have been the 

 focus or the result of the terrible explosions of 

 nature, that of Malta has not experienced their 

 violence, and is to be traced up to quite a differ- 

 ent origin. No vestige of a volcano is there per- 

 ceptible; and if you meet with lavason it, they 

 are those of Mount Vesuvius, impoited thither to 



vol. i. f serve 



