sensible being could have exercised. It is true my 
chackal was encouraged by the call of his companions, 
who came in whole bands howling every night in the 
vicinity of Semelalia; and as a set of dogs of all kinds 
answered them from within by barking, I had two noc- 
turnal concerts, which often were increased by the bray- 
ing of our asses and the crowing of our cocks and Gui- 
nea fowls. This cacophony, far from being disagreea- 
ble, gave me pleasure, because, every thing in it was 
natural. 
One might fancy that the immunity of my residence 
became known to a class which is called unreasonable 
by man, for the antelopes came in bands of hundreds 
to the walls of Semelalia to play their tricks, and seemed 
to ask for admittance. 
I formed a line collection of plants, insects, and fos- 
sils, at Semelalia. Among the insects I have some 
aranea galleopedes, of a very scarce kind, with regard 
to their size. The first of them I saw frightened me 
very much, as it was passing over my chest when I was 
sitting on my canopy. Among the fossils, the collec- 
tion of porphyrs and of rolled pebbles from the Atlas is 
valuable. 
As I had foretold that an ecMpse of the moon would 
take place in the night of the 15th January 1805, sever- 
al pashas and other men of rank assembled at my house 
to observe it; but unfortunately the weather was so thick, 
chiefly during the night, and it rained so hard, with 
continual gusts of wind, that ■ it was impossible to dis- 
cover the least thing. 
The Sultan never makes a long stay . at a place; and 
a few days after the eclipse, we had the news that he 
would soon arrive at Morocco, This caused much 
