JOURNEY TO ROSETTA. 371 
every one of us were then strangers, although chap. 
it afterwards became more famihar. Yet upon '- 
no subsequent occasion did we ever .behold this 
extraordinary illusion so marvellously displayed. 
The view of it afforded us ideas of the horrible 
despondency to which travellers must sometimes 
be exposed, who, in traversing the interminable 
desert, destitute of water, and perishing with 
thirst, have sometimes this deceitful prospect 
before their eyes*. 
Before we arrived at Rosetta, seeino; a flasr 
displayed upon the tower of Abu-mandiir, to the 
right of our route, we supposed a part of our 
troops might be there stationed, and therefore 
climbed that mountain of sand, to visit them. 
Here we were unexpectedly greeted with an 
astonishing view of the Nile, the Delta, and the 
numerous groves in all the neighbourhood of 
RosETTA : it is the same so wretchedly pictured 
in Sonnims Travels, and of which no idea can be 
To th\%M&nge adds, that the large masses only are distinctly refiected ; 
but when the l\Firage is very perfect, the most minute detail, whether 
of trees or buildings, may be plainly perceived, trembling, as when 
the inverted images of objects appear in water, the surface uhereof is 
agitated by wind. 
(2) "It is called C-J-uJl al serah hy th.t ArabiaTis ; and is alluded 
to by Isaiah (xxxv. 7) in the following words: tDlVO lltyn n*m, 
* And the Serab (the illusory lake of the Desert) shall become a real 
lake.' " Edin,, Review for Feb. 1813. p. 139. 
