6394 Extracts from the Letters of 



became prevalent, and lasted until the photographs of Francis Frith 

 told silently, but with a power not to be questioned, a very different 

 tale, and Egypt is again restored to that estimation as a land of 

 wonders which she had previously held. Dr. Bromfield's erroneous 

 estimation of these wonders has been held by some as a want of 

 candour, but those who know him best well know the utter fallacy of 

 such a conclusion ; he was annoyed and disgusted by the bombastic 

 phrases of conceited travellers, and his extreme love of truth revolted 

 at the inflated descriptions he had read. His truth-seeking mind 

 required a greater degree of exactitude than is to be found in any 

 record published up to the time of his visit : had he only seen the 

 photographs of Frith, unaccompanied by description, how different 

 w T ould have been his feelings. There is not a greater proof of the 

 estimation in which Dr. Bromfield's intense love of truth was held than 

 the effect produced by his criticisms on the antiquities of Egypt. I 

 confess myself to have been an unhesitating convert to his views, and 

 that I greatly under-estimated these antiquities until I beheld their 

 portraits painted by themselves : that evidence who shall dispute ? 



A truly affectionate sister received these letters during her brother's 

 last journey, and has printed them for private circulation only, distri- 

 buting the copies among the writer's friends. From one of them, with 

 which the editor of the ' Zoologist ' has been favoured, the following 

 interesting passages are extracted. — Edward Newman, 



Animal possessio)is of the Egyptians. — Camels, dromedaries, 

 donkeys and huge buffaloes, with a few dark brown sheep, are their 

 chief possessions ; the buffaloes may be seen continually lying in mid 

 river, with their noses alone out of the river, or swimming across to 

 the opposite bank, quiet inoffensive animals, used both for draught 

 and burden. We remarked many persons ploughing with a camel 

 and a buffalo yoked together in most ill-assorted fellowship. Dove- 

 cotes, swarming with myriads of pigeons, rose high above the houses 

 in some of the larger towns, of a conical shape, like immense hay-stacks, 

 and pierced with innumerable holes for the birds to enter in and come 

 out. Pigeons are a great article of consumption in Egypt, where 

 poultry takes the place of butchers' meat in a great measure. — 

 p. 31. 



Crocodiles in the Nile. — Nearly coequal with the limits of the 

 Doum palm is the line that bounds the distribution of the crocodile 



