ed in the beginning, would be strong objections to our received ideas of gravity."

In this delineation there are, no doubt, some traces of that vivid fancy which was so apt to carry the author beyond the precise boundaries of fact, and occasionally disposed him to touch his canvass with the most striking colours. But, making the proper allowance for this constitutional exaggeration, it must still be granted that the mountains of Tigré and Adowa are distinguished by features of a very peculiar character, and, at the same time, most interesting as connected with the principles of geology. Even Mr Salt, whose more sober judgment and chastened eye were constantly employed in noting any little deviations from the exact line of reality, acknowledges that "a thousand different-shaped hills were presented to the view, which bore the appearance of having been dropped on an irregular plain."

The singular forms now mentioned are the result of those periodical rains which carry the soil of Ethiopia to the shores of the Mediterranean, and which, after fertilizing Egypt, are continually adding to its extent at the various mouths of the Nile. The mountains, composed of various strata and rocky deposites, yield unequally to the torrents which rush upon them from the clouds; the softer parts melting down and disappearing, while the granite with its kindred masses resists, during a longer period at least, the operation of a cause which in the end will certainly prove irresistible. The seacoast occasionally presents similar phenomena on a small scale. The waves acting on the barrier of rocks perforate some, undermine others, and give rise to those angular forms and projections which at a distance assume the most grotesque appearances. It is not easy to calculate the power of a principle which, though constantly in action, proceeds with great irregularity, within any given space of time; but the effects of the rain on the hilly surface is known to be very great, while the skeleton aspect of the highest mountains confirms in this point of view the evidence of experience. When, for example, Bruce was ascending Taranta, a sudden noise was heard on the heights louder than the loudest thunder; and almost immediately a river, the channel of which had been dry, came down in

Bruce, vol. iv. p. 317.

a stream about the height of a man, and the breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. "The water was thick tinged with red earth." Hence, it is not surprising that the sides of the hills should in many parts be washed away, and that the rocks should project on high like steeples and obelisks, and be broken into a thousand different forms.*

There is a celebrated theory of the earth, which rests on the assumption, that all the land now above water will in the course of ages be swept into the sea, to be re-formed into new continents, and in due time raised above the surface, as the abode of future generations, both of men and of the inferior species. Whatever degree of truth there may be in the geological speculations connected with this hypothesis, it will be admitted that no part of the world supplies a better illustration of its leading principles than Abyssinia, or diminishes to a greater extent the feeling of improbability which appears inseparable from its first announcement. The actual condition of the mountains, resembling in some places an animal body stripped of the flesh, affords an ample proof that no element but time is wanting to complete the disintegration of the whole surface of Eastern Africa, and thereby to reduce it to the level of the ocean.

These facts would lead to reflections quite unsuitable to the limits of this chapter. Following such a train of thought, the geologist would see himself in the midst of a vast ruin, where the precipices which rise on all sides, the sharp peaks of the granite mountains, and the huge fragments that surround their bases, seem to mark so many epochs in the progress of decay, and to point out the energy of those destructive causes which even the magnitude and solidity of such great bodies have been unable to resist. Perhaps he would see reason to infer that the northern deserts of Africa occupy the place of extensive hills which have been crumbled down by the hand of time; while the dry channels of ancient rivers might be held as indications of the line in which the waters rushing from them were conveyed to the Mediterranean.†

* Travels, vol. iv. pp. 261 and 307.

+ Playfair, vol. i. p.

122.

ZOOLOGY.

CHAPTER VIII.

Notices regarding some of the principal Features in the Zoology of the Countries described in the preceding Chapters.

nine

Peculiarity in the Physical Structure of the Inhabitants of Upper Egypt-Animals numerous in Abyssinia-Monkeys-Bats-CaAnimals-Fennec-Hyenas-Lynxes-Feline AnimalsSupposed Origin of our Domestic Cat-Jerboa_Different Kinds of Wild Hog Hippopotamus-Rhinoceros-Equine AnimalsGiraffe Antelopes-Birds of Prey-Lammergeyer-VultureOwls-Pigeons-Hornbills-Parrots-Bustard-Storks. Water Fowl Reptiles-Crocodile-Cerastes-Fishes - ShellsPearl Muscles Insects-Tsaltsalya Fly-Locusts.

66

IT has been the practice of several natural historians to commence their systematic expositions with a Nosce teipsum," followed by a brief description of the human race,—thus, with more modesty than truth, affecting to classify themselves with the beasts that perish. That many of us are very "brutish persons," is a fact which cannot be gainsaid; but still there is something sufficiently preposterous in the grave and formal enunciation of those characters by which mankind in general are allied to, or distinguished from, the brute creation. The human race possesses indeed the attributes of animal life in common with the inferior orders; but we should never cease to retain a firm conviction that these are "the accidents not the essentials of our nature;"* and that, however proper it may be to mention them as the technical statements of physiology, they are yet totally inadequate to the description of a being who bears within him the germ of an immortal life, and knows that he was created "but a little lower than the angels.” "Those persons," says Buffon, "who see, hear, or smell imperfectly, are of no less intellectual capacity than others;

* Grinfield's Letters to Laurence.

an evident proof that in man there is something more than an internal sense. This is the soul of man, which is an independent and superior sense,- —a lofty and spiritual existence,-entirely different in its essence and action from the nature of the external senses.'

In conformity with these impressions we have hitherto, in the zoological disquisitions of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, assigned the most prominent place to the quadrumancus order, which we regard as the most highly organized of the brute creation, and have altogether avoided what we consider as the degradation of the human race. We shall not here depart from the observance of an accustomed rule, farther than to notice very briefly a peculiarity in the physical structure of some of those tribes, with the general history of which the reader has already been made acquainted.

It is long since Winkelman observed that the ear was invariably placed much higher in the Egyptian statues than in the Greek; but he attributed this peculiarity to a systematic practice in Egyptian art, of elevating the ears of their kings in like manner as the Greek artists are known to have exaggerated the perpendicularity of the facial angle in the heads of their gods and heroes. M. Dureau de la Malle, in his recent visit to the museum at Turin, so rich in Egyptian monuments, was particularly struck with this feature in all the statues of Phta, Moris, Osymandias, Ramesses, and Sesostris. Six mummies recently arrived from Upper Egypt were at that time under examination, and afforded him the means of ascertaining whether this special character of the higher situation of the orifice of the ear really existed in the skulls of the natives of the country. He was surprised to find in them, as well as in many other skulls from the same place, of which the facial angle did not differ from that of the European race, that the orifice of the ear, instead of being, as with us, on a line with the lower part of the nose, was placed on a line with the centre part of the eye. The head, in the region of the temple, was also much depressed, and the top of the skull elevated, as compared with those of Europe, from one and a half to two inches. It is somewhat singular that this character should have hitherto eluded the observation of so many professional ana

* Encyclopædia Britannica, 7th Edition, vol. iii. p. 159.

tomists, and of all the travellers who have traversed Egypt. As a striking corroboration of so singular a structure, which may not inaptly be regarded as the Egyptian type, and a newly-observed variety of the Caucasian race, M. Dureau cites as an example M. Elias Boctor, a Copt, native of Upper Egypt, who has been twenty years in Paris as a professor of Arabic. He was well known to M. Dureau, who had constantly remarked the great elevation of his ears, which indeed had rather the appearance of two little horns than of the ordinary human appendages. The Hebrew race are moreover said to resemble the Egyptians in several particulars. The same author examined and found that the ears of M. Carmeli, a Jew, professor of Hebrew, although not placed so high as in the mummies or Copts of Upper Egypt, were still very remarkable as compared with those of the natives of Europe."

*

Two

Before proceeding to notice a few of the more remarkable of the wild species, we may observe that the domesticated animals of Abyssinia consist, as is usual in most countries, of oxen, sheep (chiefly a small black variety), goats, horses, mules, asses, and a few camels. kinds of dogs are frequent, one of which, like the Pariah dog of India, owns no master, but lives in packs attached to the different villages; while the other is a fleet and powerful animal, of general use for the purposes of the chase. From its earliest days the latter is taught to run down game, especially guinea-fowls, and Mr Salt informs us that its expertness in catching them is astonishing. It never loses sight of the birds for an instant, after it has once started them from their haunts. Tame cats are to be seen in every house in Abyssinia.†

According to Bruce, no country in the world produces a greater number and variety of animals, whether wild or tame. The mountains, where free from wood, are covered to their summits with a rich and luxuriant verdure. The long and refreshing rains of summer are not too suddenly absorbed by the solar rays, and the warmth is sufficient to promote vegetation without producing those withering effects which usually result from heat without moisture. The horned cattle, some of which are furnished with humps, are of various kinds and colours. Certain * Revue Encyclopédique, and Literary Gazette, June 23, 1832. + Salt's Voyage, Appendix, p. 38.