438 Nates of a Tour through Palestine. [Aug. 



which passes insensibly in the upper part into a cellular rock, full of 

 tubular sinuosities, very much similar to the laterite. In some places 

 this ore lies immediately over the sandstone, without the inter- 

 mediate lithomarge. 



Before I finish speaking of the laterite in these low lands, I must 

 mention an interesting fact I observed in the thick beds of laterite, 

 which caps the hill on the foot of which Bimlipatam stands. In this 

 place it overlies the gametic gneiss so common all over this part of 

 the country ; and I was surprised to see a large piece of the subjacent 

 gneiss imbedded in the thick bed of laterite, more than a foot above the 

 point of contact of both rocks. This fact seems to countenance the 

 inference of the detrital origin of the laterite of these plains and 

 eminences. I am not aware that any pieces of extraneous rocks have 

 been noticed as imbedded in the original laterite. 



II. — Notes of a Tour through Palestine. 



[We have been favored with the following extract from the private letter of a 

 junior revenue officer in the Madras Civil Service, by the friend to whom it 

 was addressed without any view to publication. This will be the excuse, if any 

 such be required, for the cursive style in which it is written, to ourselves a strong 

 recommendation in its favor. — Ed.] 



Egypt is the most delightful country in the world to travel through; 

 the boats (if previously ordered from Cairo) are the most comfortable 

 conveyances imaginable. In all the great towns you get excellent 

 leavened bread, and in every village, delicious milk, butter, eggs, 

 fowls, and vegetables. I never lived so well in my life ; and the 

 weather was so cool and bracing, that I had a voracious appetite, and 

 enjoyed all the good things. Barring the voyage up the Red Sea, 

 (which except in the steamer is dreadful,) and the journey across the de- 

 sert from Cosseir, (which is decidedly disagreeable,) I know no place 

 so well calculated to re-establish the health of an Indian as the voy- 

 age down the Nile, between the months of October and April ; but 

 perhaps January and December are too cold for enjoyment. 



My friend and myself left Cairo in the beginning of April, and travelled 

 by land through El Arish, reaching Jerusalem in 14 days. This desert, 

 though tedious, is not near so much so as that from Cosseir. Part of the 

 way at first lies along the edge of the Delta through the cultivations, 

 with plenty of water, and from El Arish, the road is delightful, through 

 the finest pastoral country imaginable. From that place I have been 

 pleased, more than I can tell you, with every thing I have seen in 

 Syria, and have been agreeably disappointed in almost all my pre* 



