158 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. X.—B. S. 
from which the capitals were copied (as is evident in 
the great temple of Edfou), having no such swelling 
in the trunk. There is a considerable quantity of 
water in the fruit of the Deleb-palm; and as its 
height also agrees with that mentioned in the apo¬ 
strophe, the balance of evidence would rather seem in 
favour of this tree as that meant by the Mama-en- 
khanent. This same Palm has previously been mistaken 
for the Cocoa-nut tree; it is the Palm of Timbuctoo, 
which Humboldt, misguided by erroneous informa¬ 
tion, thought to be Cocos nucifera , until, in a paper 
read before the Linnean Society of London, I showed 
it to be Borassus BEthiopum. 
My time at Panama was filled up by making an 
excursion up the Bayano, one of the largest rivers of 
the Isthmus, and regarded as one of the most feasible, 
if not the most feasible, point for establishing an inter- 
oceanic canal, the merits of which have been discussed 
by Eear-Admiral Davis, of Washington.* The Bail- 
* Copy of the Beport on the Inter-Oceanic Canals (in regard to the 
route from Chepo to San Bias.) By Bear-Admiral Charles H. Davis, 
Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, Washington. Government 
Printing Office, 1867 :—“The line from Chepo to San Bias has always 
been the subject of special curiosity, on account of the jealous exclu¬ 
sion by the Indians of all strangers from their territory. Our accurate 
knowledge of the geography of the coasts on both sides enables us to 
determine that here is the narrowest part of the Isthmus. This is of 
itself an important fact; and, added to this, a rumour or report has 
been received from the Indians in this vicinity that they are in the 
habit of hauling their canoes on wooden slides across the Cordilleras, 
from the Mandingo river, and launching them in the waters of the 
Bayano. This rumour, which is noticed by many writers, is particu¬ 
larly mentioned by Mr. Oliphant, in a paper read before the Geogra¬ 
phical Society of London, April 21, 1865. The writer of that paper 
