D A M 



571 



DAN 



Damietta. Lesbe, in which he obliges all the fishermen to reside, 

 s — ^/— "' that they may give assistance to vessels in distress, or 

 when wrecked on the shore. Here Lord Valentia obser- 

 ved a round tower of ancient masonry, which forms the 

 extremity of a building that reaches to the river; and he 

 is of opinion that the great iron chain which was for- 

 merly stretched across the river was fastened to this 

 edifice. 



In order to prevent a hostile fleet from entering the 

 river, the mouth of it is choked up with a bar called 

 Boyaz, which is not so impassable as the bar at Roset- 

 ta. It admits ships of much larger burthen than the 

 Scherms or Jerms, which are employed in loading and 

 unloading the ships in the road. The vessels which 

 are able to get over the bar anchor close to the town in 

 fourteen feet of water. 



Damietta carries on a very considerable commerce 

 with Syria, Cyprus, and Marseilles. Its principal ex- 

 ports are rice, of which six millions worth is annually 

 exported, linens, sal ammoniac, and corn, the last of 

 which is sent off under the name of rice, as its expor- 

 tation is prohibited. 



In the numerous villages which encircleJDamietta, 

 are fabricated the most beautiful linens, and particular- 

 ly a kind of napkins fringed with silk. 



There are few remains of antiquity in this town. 

 Lord Valentia saw the ruins of an ancient granite 

 obelisk, which is nearly worn away, and which is men- 

 tioned by Andreossi as forming the door sill of the 

 barracks. He also found near the door of a merchant, 

 two pedestals, one of which contained the following 

 Latin inscription. 



LICINIAE LF SECUNDAE 

 DOMITI CATULLI. 



The other, which was partly concealed by a step, 

 exhibited when removed the following Greak inscrip- 

 tion. 



H BOYAH KAI O AHMOZ 

 AOYKION nOIIIAAION BAABON 

 nPHSBEYTHN TIBEPIOY 

 KAAYAIOY KAIXAP02 

 XEBA2TOY TEPMANIKOY 

 TON nATTONA THS ITOAEOS. 



The owner of these pedestals informed Lord Valen- 

 tia, that they were brought in a vessel from Syria. An- 

 dreossi mentions a Greek inscription on a column in a 

 mosque, which Lord Valentia copied, and of which he 

 has given an engraving. He considers it as cabalistic. 

 At Menchie, a suburb nearer the sea, he found an Arab 

 inscription, which places its erection in the 1117th 

 year of the Hegira. It contained several beautiful mar- 

 ble columns greatly injured, and near it was a mara- 

 bout, having its dome sustained by four columns of 

 jasper, which had preserved their polish in a remark- 

 able manner. A fifth jasper column was placed at the 

 entrance. 



The greater number of authors who have written up- 

 on Egypt, such as Sicard, Pocock, Prospero Alpini, 

 Shaw, Maillet, and Niebuhr. have supposed that the 

 modern Damietta was built upon the site of the ancient 

 town. Savary, however, is of opinion, that ancient 

 Damietta occupied the spot on which the village of 

 Lesbe now stands, and in proof of this, he mentions the 

 ruins which Lord Valentia ceuld not discover. " The 

 mosque which Savary mentions," says Lord Valentia, 

 " could not be the one left when the Sultan of Egypt de- 

 stroyed the town, as it is of a modern date. Certainly 



if Savary have faithfully translated the quotations he 

 has given from Macrizi and Abulfeda, there can be no 

 doubt that the ancient Damietta was destroyed, in or- 

 der to prevent its being taken from the Christians, and 

 a new town of the same name was built higher up the 

 river ; yet it is difficult to comprehend what advantage 

 would arise from removing it only a few miles to the 

 site of the present town, or indeed for its removal at 

 all, since the walls and fortifications alone were of im- 

 portance, and their complete destruction would have 

 precluded the possibility of its again becoming an asy- 

 lum to a vanquished enemy." Population of the town 

 80,000. Distance from Cairo, 84 miles N. N. E. East 

 Long, from Greenwich observatory 31° 57', and North 

 Lat. 31° 25' 40". See Savary's Letters on Egypt, vol. i.; 

 Niebuhr 's Travels in Arabia, vol. i. ; and Lord Valen- 

 tia's Voyages and Travels to India, Egypt, §c. vol. iii. 

 p. 416—421. (*•) 



DAMP. See Coal Mines. 



DAMPIERA, a genus of plants of the class Pentan- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See Brown's Prodromus 

 Plant. Nov. Holl. Sfc. p. 587, and Botany, p. 175. 



DANiEA. See Filices. 



DANCE. See Recreations. 



DANDA. See Angola and Congo. 



DANNEMORA, the name of the most celebrated 

 iron mine in Sweden, is situated in the province of Up- 

 land, about one English mile from Osterby, and 30 

 English miles north of Upsal. This mine was disco- 

 vered in the year 1448, and though it has been now 

 wrought for nearly 366 years, it still yields abundance 

 of the best iron in Europe. It was originally wrought 

 as a silver mine, the silver being found in the galena; 

 but when this became unproductive, the attention of the 

 proprietors was directed exclusively to its iron ore. At 

 first it belonged to the King of Sweden, but that mo- 

 nareh consigned it to the Archbishop of Upsala as a 

 part of his revenues ; and it now belongs to a number 

 of private individuals, each of whom works it separate- 

 ly on his own account. 



The iron mine is on a hill, which has scarcely the ap- 

 pearance of being elevated above the surrounding coun- 

 try. It is about two English miles long, and nearly 

 half a mile broad, and is encircled by lakes, those of 

 Dannemora, Films, and Grufve being quite close to it. 

 On the side where there are no lakes, there is a turf 

 moss. The ore forms a large vein in this hill, which 

 stretches in a north-west and south-east direction. The 

 mine was some years ago inundated by the water from 

 the adjacent lakes. A strong wall, however, has been 

 built to keep off the water. It is drained by means of 

 two steam-engines, kept going by means of wood for fuel. 



At the side of the mine is a large opening, about 50 

 fathoms deep and 50 wide, and at the lower part of this 

 is the entrance to the mine, which is wrought about 30 

 fathoms deeper than this opening. The ore is blasted 

 by gunpowder. The part of the vetn at the mouth of 

 the mine is called stor rymning ; the next portion, call- 

 ed jord grufva, earth mine, yields the finest ore ; and the 

 portion farthest south, called sodra grvfva, or southern 

 mine, yields the worst ore, probably from being mixed 

 with galena and blende. The rock through which the 

 vein runs is said to be quartz. The substance imme- 

 diately contiguous to the vein appealed to Dr Thomson 

 to be hornstone, and to contain hornblende. The ore 

 itself contains limestone, quartz, and actinolite, and af- 

 fords from 25 to 75 per cent, of cast iron. In the worst 

 kind of ore, Dr Thomson also perceived blende, Aiior" 

 spar, galena, and amethyst, but in small quantities. 



Damp 



Danueinn* 



