CATACOMBS OF ALEXANDRIA. 



377 



a French captain, and two or three more, and penetrated far- 

 ther under ground than I had ever yet been. The plain is very 

 regular and beautiful ; by what we have already examined we can see 

 that there is yet much more wanting to complete it. The whole is 

 cut entirely out of the rock. There are foxes and jackalls, and other 

 animals which get in, and make a smell so disagreeable, that it is 

 enough to strike one down. 



Jan. 6, 7, 8, 9. — Intended to have gone out to make some more 

 discoveries in the catacombs, but it was thought prudent to defer 

 this, as there is a caravan arrived from Barbary with about three 

 hundred Arabs with dates ; they are all encamped near Pompey's 

 pillar. 



Impatient to make some new discoveries at the catacombs, I set 

 out from the old port in a boat accompanied by Mr. M.'s Janissaries, 

 and two men to dig and open where there should be occasion. We 

 reached the place in an hour's time, and having fired a gun as usual, 

 , lighted our candles, and crept in with much difficulty into several 

 places which before I had thought inaccessible on account of the 

 quantity of earth with which they are choaked up. These were 

 added to the plan. There are some passages that certainly lead 

 to other apartments, but they are so filled up with earth, that it is 

 impossible to pass. There is one in particular dotted out in the plan, 

 which seems to have been so high as to allow a man to walk up- 

 right without stooping ; the roof is arched : it is not more than two 

 feet wide ; we crept in a good way, and found it turned to the right ; 

 but the passage being too narrow to surfer us to proceed further, 

 we were obliged to come out with our feet first, as there was no 

 room to turn. We took the plan of the cupola with more exactness 

 than before, as well as the different members of the architecture, 

 which, though varying in many of the proportions, comes nearest to 

 the Tuscan order. After staying in about five hours, and seeing 

 every place it was possible to approach, we left the catacombs, and 

 took the bearing of them to the large tower in Porto Vecchio. 



3 c 



