Scientific Reviews. 115 
patterns. A grove of green dates on the one side, and the curious 
bee-hive huts of the Bedouins and Jews on the other, constitute 
the peculiar features of the town. 
Mrs. L. was disappointed to find coffee of an inferior quality at 
Mocha, and this coincides with Mr. Buckingham’s statement. Be- 
sides this article, dates, honey, and a few shells, are articles of ex- 
port, and from the coast of Aden, or Abyssinia, are derived sup- 
plies of grain, horses, asses, and long-tailed sheep. 
Our travellers proceeded up the Red Sea, passing their time 
very pleasantly. They noticed a dangerous shoal in long. 34° 53” E. 
lat. 25° 20’ N. about one mile in length, N.N.W. and 8.5. E., 
distant from the Egyptian shore about three leagues. It is steep, 
and at a distance of half a mile there is no ground at 100 fathoms. 
Captain Denton named it Elphinstone Reef. 
On the 26th of December they reached Cosseir, having made a 
passage of twenty-three days from Mocha, and thirty-nme from 
Bombay. In Cosseir the hills, oven-shaped houses, and sands, ap- 
peared all of the same colour, Here they heard of the death of 
Mr. Salt, and of the battle of Navarino, but had not to complain 
of the Effendi. 
Accommodated with camels, which as we have, from previous 
authorities, been led to understand, are not distinguished from the 
dromedary in Egypt, but in what regards swiftness and dispatch, 
the cavalcade, after conquering the first difficulties, and in the teeth 
of the inconveniences of unequal riding, (particularly incommedious 
to a female, ) upsetting of loads, pilfering of Arabs, vociferating Las- 
cars, and roaring camels, departed for the desert. 
“ Though much variety ef country or occurrence cannot be ex- 
pected in the Desert, I may (says Mrs. Lushington) assert with truth 
that the passage through it was to me very interesting and agree- 
able. For the first three stages the road was diversified by some 
inequalities of ground, and remarkable passes through the rocky 
mountains ; but the course of our journey in general lay through 
an arid plain of sand and stones, about two or three miles in breadth, 
bounded by rocks of sandstone of an almost uniform appearance. 
‘On the second day’s march I saw one or two trees, and the road 
was so varied, that I could then scarcely believe myself in a de- 
sert, which I had always pictured to my imagination as a dreary 
and interminable plain, with heavy loose sand, curled into clouds 
by every breath of wind.” ; 
From similar “ pictures of the imagination,” the opinion most 
generally formed of deserts is completely erroneous, and presents a 
subject of inquiry, of which we hope soon to trace the more exact 
features in the pages of this Journal. Nothing could excel the 
climate of the deserts in these regions, nor was the effects of the 
sun ever injurious. 
About twelve or fifteen miles from Legayta, they first gained 
a sight of the fertile country on the banks of the Nile. The 
contrast with the desert was not very striking. The irrigating 
