XS& \ t'hAKKtfS TiiATEtf. 
pothesis may be urged, in the fa&t that the women of the country 
cat those beetles, in order to become prolific.* 
A building of considerable, although unknown, antiquity* 
still exists in Rosetta; which seems to afford proof that the 
pointed Gothic arch owes its origin' to the appearance pre¬ 
sented by contiguous palm trees. The roof is entirely of 'stone, 
and consists of curvatures supported by props, representing 
the trunks of palm trees, placed in the sides and comers of the 
structure* Their branches, crossing each other upward, form 
intersections corresponding in shape with the pointed arches of 
our cathedrals. 
We had not remained a fortnight in Rosetta, when our plao 
of residence was suddenly interrupted by an invitation from 
Captain Russell, of the Ceres frigate, to accompany him to 
Cyprus; his ship having been ordered to that island for water. 
We accepted his kind offer, and, returning to the Braakel on 
the twentieth of May, set sail in the Ceres on the twenty- 
ninth, steering first toward the mouth of the Nile; Captain 
Russel being commissioned to send to Rosetta some chests of 
dollars, to purchase supplies for the fleet. We lay all that 
night off the mouth of the Nile, after taking the latitude of its 
embouchure at noon. Our own latitude we found to be 31 Q 
25*; and our distance from the mouth being two miles at the 
time of the observation, makes the junction of the Nile with 
the Mediterranean precisely 31° 27\ Our voyage was at¬ 
tended by no circumstance worth notice. In the examination 
of the ship’s log-book, we found only a repetition of the same 
statement, of favourable breezes and fair weather. In the 
Archipelago and Mediterranean, during the summer season, 
mariners may sleep. Their vessels glide over a scarcely ruf¬ 
fled surface, with almost imperceptible motion. But in other 
months, no part of the main ocean is more agitated by winds, 
figura circulo insignita . . . . nihil aliud indicat, quatn Solem supra-rmindanum.” 
.Kircher. (Edip. -.JBgypt. tcm. iii. p, 320 Rom. 1654. “ Anima IVIundi, give Spiritus' 
Universi, ex Scarabago constat.” Ibid. p. 147. 
# This eurious remnant of an ancient superstition is also not without its illustration 
in Kircher : “ Acecdit quod idem Scarcibatus signifleatione ad mores translate idem , tests 
Horo, lib. 1. cap. 10. quod patrem el mascidara virtutem nottlGSdip. JEgypt. tom. jii. 
cap. 4. p. 179. The subject admits of further illustration, by reference to Plutarch. 
According to him, soldiers were the image of the beetle upon their signets; and this 
perhaps may account not only for the number of them found, but also for the coarse¬ 
ness of the workmanship “ Of a like nature,” says he “ is the beetle , which w*e see 
engraven upon the signets of the soldiers ; for there are no females of this species, but 
all males, who propagate their kind by casting their seed into those round balls of 
dung, which they form on purpose; providing thereby, not only a proper nidus for 
the reception of their young, but nburishoieat likewise for them as soon as they z-'t 
feer/),” Flat arch, de I side ei Osir: cap. 10. 
