EGYPT. 165 
any other mineralized wood. He says*, the chap. 
fibres, as in the living plant, " do not run > 
straight and parallel as in other trees ; but are 
for the most part oblique, or diverging from one 
another, in an angle of about ten degrees." 
In the gardens and cultivated grounds near Dates and 
the Nile, the inhabitants were now beginning 
{August 11) to collect the dates ; but the corn 
was still out, in some places. The mercury in 
the thermometer, at noon this day, when ob- 
served in the desert east of Heliopolis, did not 
stand higher than 87" of Fahrenheit. The heat 
in Ensrland has been sometimes almost equal to 
this in the month of September. 
The facility with which the Arabs run up and 
down the date-trees, at first sight surprises a 
stranger; but when the attempt is made, nothing 
can be easier. A series of cavities in the bark 
of those trees, as if purposely excavated to 
admit the hands and feet, render the ascent, 
and descent, as practicable as upon the steps of 
a ladder. We frequently climbed to the top of 
the tallest palm-trees by means of this natural 
staircase. 
(4) Ibid. p. 161. 
