{ Al6 ) 



XXIX. 



ExiraSI from a Diary of a Journey over the Great Desart, 

 ram Aleppo to ~Bussora 3 in April 1782. Communi- 

 cated I y -Sir W iili a m D u n k i n ; and published with 

 a to dire CI the attention of future travellers to 



Ruins described in it, 



APRIL l6. 



ETofFat five in the morning; encamped at five in 

 the evening; the day intensely hot; the soil in 

 general sandy; some few shrubs and bufhes, but now 

 quite brown, and so dry, that with the least touch 

 they fall to powder; many stalks of lavender and 

 rosemary ; and in very dry red sandseveral scarlet tu- 

 lips; other sorts new to me, one of a singular kind, 

 it\ colour and smell like a yellow lupin, but in figure 

 like the cone of a fir-tree, from ten to twelve inches 

 long. 



After about two hours in this sort of country, the 

 ground appeared more verdant and firm ; we then 

 came to some very extraordinary ruins our Shaikh had 

 seen, but never had approached them before; we pre- 

 vailed on him ; he called the place Castrohnoin ; an- 

 other Arab called it Calmay ; our Armenians \ who in- 

 terpreted for us in very bad Italian, called it Castro 

 duo fralilli (I try to give the names from their mode 

 of pronouncing) j what we first saw was a square, each 

 .side about 400 yards along. The walls forty feet 



high, 



