408 ALEXANDRIA TO COS. 
CHAP. Alexandria and Aboukir, whence our army 
marched to attack the French on the thirteentfi 
of March : the trees here were very lofty, and, 
from the sing-ular formation of their bark, we 
found it as easy to ascend to the tops of these 
trees as to cHmb the steps of a ladder. Where- 
ever the date-tree is found in these dreary 
deserts, it not only presents a supply of salutary 
food, for men and camels', but Nature has so 
wonderfully contrived the plant, that its first 
offering is accessible to man alone ; and the 
mere circumstance of its presence, in all sea- 
sons of the year, is a never-failing indication of 
fresh water near its roots. Botanists describe 
the trunk of the date-tree as full of rugged 
knots®; but the fact is, that it is full of cavities, 
the vestiges of its decayed leaves, which have 
within them an horizontal surface, flat and even, 
exactly adapted to the reception of the human 
feet and hands; and it is impossible to view 
them without believing that he, who in the 
beginning fashioned '"every tree, in the 
WHICH IS THE FRUIT OF A TREE YIELDING SEED,'" 
(1) The /irahs feed their camels with the dale stories, after grindiug 
them in their hand-mills. 
(3) See Phoenix dactilifera. Marli/n's Edit, of Miller's Diet. Land. 
1807. 
(3) Gen. i. 29. 
