er
without their assistance, till I reached the mouth of the entrance to
the interior. I descended this inlet somewhat after the manner of a
sweep going down a chimney, but not quite so comfortable, I believe.
In this narrow inclined plane, I not only had to encounter sand-flies,
and every variety of vermin in Egypt, but I was afraid of serpents.
The confined pass was filled, too, with warm dust, and the heat and
smoke of the lights we carried increased the stifling sensation. In
these circumstances, I felt anxious only to go as far as would enable
me to fire a pistol with effect in one of the vaults. This is well
worth while, inasmuch as the sound of the explosion was louder than
the roar of a cannon. In fact, it almost rent the drum of my ears, and
rolled on like thunder through the interior of the pyramid, multiplied
and magnified as it was by a thousand echoes. The sound seemed to
sink, and mount from cavity to cavity--to rebound and to divide--and
at length to die in a good old age. The flash and the smoke produced,
too, a momentary feeling of terror. Having performed this marvellous
feat, I was nowise ambitious to qualify myself further for giving a
description of the interior.'

After visiting Suez, the author returned to Cairo, descended to the
coast of the Levant, and took shipping for Jaffa, on the route to
Jerusalem. Every point of interest in the holy city is described as
minutely as could be desired. Next, there was a visit to the Dead Sea,
regarding which there occur some sagacious remarks. The doctor
repudiates the ordinary belief, that the waters of this famed lake are
carried off by exhalation. Six million tons of water are discharged
every day by the Jordan into the Dead Sea; and to suppose that this
vast increase is wholly exhaled, seems to him absurd. He deems it more
likely that the lake issues by subterranean passages into the Red Sea.
The only remark that occurs to us on this point is, that the saltness
of the lake must be held as a proof that there is at least a large
exhalation from the surface.

Dr Aiton also visited Bethlehem, where he saw much to interest him;
and had the satisfaction of being hospitably entertained by the
fathers of the Greek convent. 'I left the convent,' he says, 'soothed
and satisfied much with all that I had seen, and went round to take a
parting and more particular view of the plain where the shepherds
heard the angels proclaim: "Glory to God in the highest, and on ea