Bericht über die Naturhistorischen Reisen der Herren Ehrenberg und Hemprich, durch Aegypten, Dongola, Syrien, Arabien, und den östlichen Abfall des Habessinian Hochlandes, in den Jahren 1820—1825.

Gelesen in der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, von Alexander von Humboldt.

Berlin.

Gedruckt in der Druckerei der Königlichen Academie der Wissenschaften. 1826.

Report of the Researches in various Branches of Natural History made by Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, on their Travels through Egypt, Dongola, Syria, Arabia, and the Eastern Slope of the Abyssinian Highlands in the Years 1820–1825.

Read before the Royal Academy of Sciences, by Alexander Von Humboldt. Berlin; printed at the press of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1826.

There is perhaps no department of knowledge, in which the difference between the ancient and modern literature is more apparent, than that, with which the work just named is connected,—we mean the department of Voyages and Travels.

The literature of travels (if we may be allowed so to speak) can scarcely be said to have had any existence in ancient days.

Travelling, indeed, was then, for the most part, a difficult, and even a dangerous business.

We have only to recollect, that the Roman word, hostis, means stranger and enemy, and it will be easy to believe what has now been stated.

The character of the Romans was indeed, in this respect, more exclusive than that of the Greeks, who, at some periods of their history, were great travellers.

They however divided mankind into Greek and Barbarian, and although the polite Athenian made a distinction between ἐχϑρὸς and παρεπίδημος, yet he acknowledged no standard of civilization but his own.

As stranger and enemy were synonymous to the Romans, so ἀλλόφυλος is employed by the Seventy to designate a Philistine, or any heathen enemy of the Jews.

The difference between ancient and modern times, in regard to books of travels, is felt at once when we ask the question, Where in Greek, Roman, Egyptian, ancient Arabian, or other ancient literature, is there any work of this nature to be found?

Not that there were no scientific travellers, in ancient times.

We know the contrary to be true.

But the result of their journeys was embodied in other forms, than that of an itinerary.

Solon composed no book of travels.

Herodotus visited Egypt, Syria, and Persia, for the sake of making historical inquiries; and the result of these he has embodied in his history.

Other ancient historians and antiquaries did the same.

Ancient philosophers, lawgivers, geographers, poets, biographers, and letter-writers, have also left us many monuments of their personal acquaintance with nations and countries foreign to their own. Still there is no work, descending to us from antiquity, which has any near resemblance to the itineraries of the present time.

There is, indeed, a book called the ‘Itinerary of Antonine,’ drawn up by order of Antoninus Pius, the Roman emperor, which was designed to show all the great roads in the empire, and all the stations of the Roman army.

In its present form this work is very defective, having probably suffered much in the hands of copyists.

At best, too, it appears to have been only a kind of ‘travelling register’; amounting to little more than an official report of military posts, and the distances between them.

The first work among the Arabians, which seems to approach very nearly to the shape of more modern Travels, appears to be that composed by Abdollatif, about the year 1200.

Before this time, geographical works, the result of travels and observations, had been composed by Arabian authors.

Such was that of Ibn Haukal, who wrote, in the latter half of the tenth century, a kind of universal geography.

A similar work was composed by Edrisi, in the twelfth century.

But Abdollatif visited Egypt in person, resided there for a length of time, and, during his abode in that country, composed ‘Histories and profitable Remarks on things which he had seen in Egypt, and on the occurrences which he had there witnessed.’ The work contains valuable observations on the physical condition of that country, and of its inhabitants, and also respecting its antiquities.

It has been translated into Latin by Professor White of Oxford, and into German by Professor Wahl of Halle.

Many other geographers and historians, of particular countries, appeared in the Arabic not long after the time of Abdollatif; but none of them, for some time, came so near as he, to the modern method of writing travels.

Something of the same feeling, which roused the nations of Europe to vie with each other, in the toils and sufferings of the crusades, appears to have given birth to the literature of travels, in its more appropriate shape.

The superstition which had, for a long time, attached such high estimation and reverence to the relics, which were said to have come from the Holy Land, and which were borne in solemn procession through all the great cities and large towns of Europe, as objects entitled to a species of adoration; this same superstition would, of course, regard Palestine itself as an object of the most intense interest, and would create an ardent desire to gain all the knowledge respecting it, which could be had.

It was to gratify this curiosity, that some of the pilgrims to the Holy Land, who belonged to the company that made the first crusade, undertook to describe the events which occurred during their journey, and the objects which they found in Palestine.

Ruperti, a monk of Bergen, who marched with the army of Godfrey of Bouillon, was the first, we believe, who composed such a narration.

Every successive crusade gave occasion to new ones, of a similar nature.

Not long after the art of printing came to be in general use, books of this kind had become so numerous, and were in so great demand, that a kind of Corpus of them was published by Sigmund Feyerabend, in one considerable volume, printed in the year 1583.

As this edition was soon sold off, and as it did not comprise all the works of the same nature which might have been included, Nicolaus Noth, of Frankfort on the Mayne, republished it with additions, in two folio volumes, in the year 1609.

This collection embraced twenty-one Itineraries, beginning with that of Ruperti mentioned above, and ending with that of John Schwallart (Zuallart), a native of the Netherlands.

A number of these Itineraries were composed in Latin, French, and various other languages of Europe; which were all translated (some of them very poorly) into the German, and printed by Noth in this language.

To the whole collection thus made, was given the name of Reissbuch des heiliges Landes, that is, ‘Itinerary of the Holy Land.’

Similar to this work, in manner and spirit, is another collection, entitled Voyages faits principalement en Asie, dans les XII., XIII., XIV., et XV. siècles, par Benjamin de Tudèle, Jean du Plan Carpin, &c.; par Pierre Bergeron, Haag, 1735. 2 tom. folio. The greatest curiosity in this book (and it is indeed a singular production) is the famous ‘Itinerary’ of Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, and a native of the province of Navarre.

He set out on his journey in the year 1160, and travelled by land to Constantinople.

Thence he proceeded through the countries north of the Euxine and Caspian seas, as far as Chinese Tartary.

Thence he went to farther India, traversed various provinces in that region, embarked on the Indian Ocean, visited several of its islands, and thence returned to Europe, by the way of Egypt, after an absence of thirteen years.

He died in 1173.

His Itinerary was composed in Hebrew, and printed in that language, first at Constantinople, in 1543; next, at Ferrara, in 1556; and lastly at Breisgau, in 1583. A Latin translation of it was made by Arias Montanus, and published at Antwerp in 1575.

Another Latin translation of it, with the corresponding columns of the original Hebrew, was published at Leyden, in small octavo, in the year 1633, by Constantine L’ Empereur, professor of Hebrew at the University in that city.

In the article devoted to Benjamin of Tudela in Rees’s Cyclopædia, the edition of his work published by the rabbis of Constantinople, is absurdly represented as containing the Latin version of the Benedictine Montanus; while it is still more ridiculously stated, in reference to the other translation, that ‘Benjamin’s book was translated by the emperor Constantine!’ A pretty fair specimen this of Cyclopædia learning.

About a century after L’Empereur’s edition of the work of Benjamin (1633), it met with a most singular editor in the person of John Philip Baratier, born at Schwabach in Nuremberg, in 1721. He is said to have understood the Greek, Latin, German, and French languages, when he was five years old.

At the age of nine, he could translate the Hebrew language into the Latin or French; and the Latin and French into the Hebrew.

He could repeat the whole book of Psalms in Hebrew, memoriter, at the same age; and when he was ten, he is represented as having composed a Lexicon of rare and difficult words, with curious critical remarks.

At this age he joined the University of Altdorf, and addressed a letter, in French, to M.

Le Maître, minister of the French church at Schwabach, respecting a new edition of the Bible, in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Rabbinic; which letter is preserved in volume twenty-sixth of the ‘Bibliothèque Germanique.’ At the age of thirteen, he published his version of Benjamin’s Itinerary, in French, entitled ‘Voyages de Rabbi Benjamin,’ &c., 2 vols.

Amsterdam, 1734. It is allowed, by all competent judges, that he has corrected many errors of the veteran Hebraists, Montanus and L’Empereur; and besides this, he has added many notes and dissertations, which exhibit a high degree of critical skill and accuracy, and a profound and extensive knowledge.

His notes seem to have been the first thing which destroyed the credit of the Rabbi’s Itinerary, showing that it was filled with the most senseless fables, and that it abounded in the most obvious mistakes respecting the relative distances of places, and other things of the like nature.

This was the downfall of the book; which after having gone through three Hebrew and two Latin editions, and circulated widely over Europe, and been greatly honored and much credited among learned men, came to its end by the fatal attack of a child of thirteen years of age.

Sed manum de tabulâ.

We must proceed on our way.

We do not intend to write a Bibliotheca of Travels; certainly not a general one; and with regard to the countries of hither Asia, with the adjacent ones on the continents of Africa and Europe, we shall only glance at some of the Travels, which give the most credible and valuable accounts of them.

These countries are connected so intimately with the writings of classical authors, both sacred and profane, that no lover of literature can help feeling a deep interest in them, and a corresponding desire to know what are the best sources from which he can draw his knowledge.

The work, too, which is announced at the head of this article, naturally leads us to dwell for a few moments, on those which have preceded it.

Ten years after the work of Rabbi Benjamin was printed, namely, in 1558, Pierre B. du Mans published, at Paris, Les Observations de plusieurs Singularités et Choses Mémorables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie, et autres Pays Estranges.’ This author was distinguished as a learned and accurate naturalist; and his work may be considered as one of the first, which bore any considerable resemblance to the form which accounts of Travels have since assumed in the hands of the great masters in this branch of science.

The principal design of the writer was to describe natural objects.

Manners and customs, civil, social, and domestic regulations and arrangements, are merely secondary with him, although he does not neglect them.

So valuable is this work, that Professor Paulus of Heidelburg, in his ‘Collection of Travels,’ has printed copious extracts from it, accompanied with the annotations of a naturalist. The author was murdered in the forest of Boulogne, in 1564.

In 1583, was published in Neuburg of Bavaria, Leonharti Rauwolf’s Beschreibung der Raiss [Reise] in die Morgenländer, fürnehmlich Syriam, Judæam, Arabiam, Mesopotamiam, Babyloniam, Assyriam, Armeniam, etc.

The author was a physician by profession, and so careful and accurate an observer of men and manners, that his book has continued in use down to the present time.

A useful book was published in 1614, at Antwerp, by N. C. Radzivill, entitled Jerosolymitana Peregrinatio Illustrissimi Principis, Nicolai Christophori Radzivili.

In 1619, appeared also at Antwerp, one of the most useful of all the old works of this nature, and indeed, a master-piece for the time in which it was written.

It was entitled Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum, a Joanne Cotovico, J. V. D. et Milite Hierosolymitano.

‘From this work,’ says Lüdeke in his ‘History of the Turkish Empire,’ ‘much has been extracted by authors, without giving credit for it.’

But a greater work appeared in 1658–1663, in four volumes, quarto, by Pietro della Valle, a most learned and interesting man and author.

He was a Roman nobleman, and published his work in Italian. He commenced travelling in 1614, went through Egypt, Turkey, Persia, India, etc., and in 1626 returned to Rome, where his work was composed, and printed some thirty years afterwards.

One of the first geniuses of this age (Göthe, in the Divan) has given us a delightful sketch of the life of Della Valle.

In the conclusion of it he says (as a kind of apology for dwelling on this subject), ‘It may be proper to remark, that every one is prone to give the preference to that way, in which he has himself attained to a knowledge of anything; and also to introduce others to it, and initiate them into it.

With this intention, have I given a particular description of Pietro della Valle, because he was the traveller, by whom the peculiarities of the East were first made known to me in the clearest manner; and to my partiality it appears, that by means of his representations, I first gained some ground which was appropriate to my Divan. I could wish this might serve to excite others, at the present time (which abounds so much in sheets and pamphlets), to read through a folio, by which they might come to a definite knowledge of an important part of the world, one which in the latest books of travels is superficially changed, but which remains essentially the same as it appeared to our distinguished traveller, at the time when he worte.’ We have only to add, that Della Valle was the first man, in modern times, who made known the Samaritans to the European world.

It was he who procured, at Damascus, in 1616, the first copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch that came to Europe.

Della Valle purchased it for the French consul, De Sancy, afterwards bishop of St Malo, who presented it to the Fathers of the Oratory, at Paris; and there it was published by Morin, and became the ground-text of all succeeding editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch.

In 1647, appeared at Schlesswig, the Travels of A. Olearius, in German.

He was a counsellor in the suite of the embassy, which Frederic the Third, duke of Schlesswig and Holstein, sent through Muscovy, to the court of Persia.

His work is among the best of those which respect the countries travelled by the embassy.

In 1676, J. B. Tavernier, baron of Aubonne, published his Six Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes, faits pendant l’espace de quarante ans.

These Voyages he made in the capacity of a jewel-merchant; in which character he gained access to all classes of people.

His long continued intercourse with the East gave him the best opportunities for accurate information.

His work has had great credit, and been often reprinted.

In 1686, Sir John Chardin, by birth a Frenchman, published, at London, an abridged edition of his Travels; and more fully afterwards, in 1711, at Amsterdam, in three volumes quarto, and in ten volumes duodecimo.

Chardin, also, visited Persia and other parts of the East, in the quality of a jewel-merchant, and gained access to all classes of people.

So great is the worth of his work, that it has been lately republished at Paris, by L. Langlès, member of the National Institute, Professor of Persian, etc., in ten volumes octavo, with maps and plates.

The title is, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres Lieux de l’Orient, etc.

Descendants of Sir John Chardin were among the French Huguenot emigrants to this country.

Laurent d’Arvieux, long conversant with the East, and for many years French consul at Aleppo, left behind him papers, at his death, which happened in 1702, that were afterwards published by order of Lewis the Fourteenth, in 1717, at Paris, by M. de la Roque.

His account of the Bedouin Arabs, in particular, has been generally regarded as the best which has been given.

It was translated into German, and republished in 1789, by E. F. K. Rosenmueller, at Leipzig.

The largest and best edition of D’Arvieux is that published at Paris, in 1735, in eight volumes octavo, entitled Mémoires du Chevalier D’Arvieux, contenant ses Voyages, &c.’

A useful work, with special reference to places named in the Bible, is that of Franz Ferdinand Von Troilo, entitled Orientalische Reise-Beschreibung, printed at Dresden in 1677, and several times repeated.

The author was four years in the East.

In 1665, was published at Paris, Relation d’un Voyage fait au Levant, etc., par.

Mr de Thevenot; and in 1674 and 1684, additions to the above work.

Of this work, Rosenmueller, the present eminent Professor of Oriental Literature at Leipzig, says, ‘The notices are altogether simple and artless, and show a good talent at observation, as well as sound judgment.

The work deserves to be better esteemed, than it has been of late.’

One of the most useful of all the Thesauri of Oriental Travels, is the work of Engelbert Kaempfer, Lemgo, 1712, entitled Amœnitatum Exoticarum Politico-physico-medicarum Fasciculi V., quibus continentur variæ Relationes, Observationes, Descriptiones, etc. He was secretary to the Swedish legation in the East, where, during a residence of ten years, he had an excellent opportunity to make himself acquainted with the subject on which he has written, in its various branches.

Maundrell’s ‘Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem,’ contains useful things, in respect to both the antiquities and the geography of the sacred Scriptures.

Maundrell was chaplain of the English factory at Aleppo, where, of course, he enjoyed distinguished opportunities for observation; but his work is on the whole but meagre.

We pass over Paul Lucas’ Voyage au Levant, 1705, more splendid than solid; and also over a volume of Travels by Nyenburg and Heyman, 1757, 1758, a work valuable, we believe, for those who can use it; but existing, as yet, only in the Dutch language.

Tournefort’s Relation d’un voyage au Levant, etc., Paris, 1717, and often reprinted, is one of the richest works of his times, for comparative geography, and for the science of botany.

One of the most important of all the books of travels, which have reference to the East, is that published by Dr Thomas Shaw, in 1738, with a Supplement, in 1746. It is entitled Travels or Observations relating to several Parts of Barbary and the Levant, &c. Shaw was born at Kendall, in Westmoreland, in 1692, and was educated at the University of Oxford.

At the age of twenty-seven he took orders, and was appointed chaplain to the English factory at Algiers.

During a residence there of twelve years, he made various excursions, for literary and scientific purposes, into Barbary, Egypt, Syria, and the Levant.

He was possessed of great learning, of sound judgment, and of the power to an uncommon degree of acute and discriminating observation.

His work is not disposed in the usual method of a journal, but arranged systematically, according to the nature of the subjects treated.

It is a rich treasure of geographical, physical, and antiquarian knowledge; most of it referring, more or less directly, to the sacred Scriptures.

In 1733, the author returned to England; and in 1740, he was appointed Principal of Edmund Hall, at Oxford; and afterwards Regius Professor of Greek.

He died in 1751.

His ‘Travels’ have been often reprinted; and they deserve a new edition, at the present time, being of unspeakably more value than a great part of the superficial works, which pour like a flood from the presses of the present day.

The Travels of Charles Thompson, into various countries of the East, printed in 1744; and Mr Otter’s Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, printed at Paris in 1748, are not worthy of very special notice.

Of a far different character is the great work of Richard Pococke, published at London, 1743–1745, in three volumes folio, and entitled Observations on Egypt, Palestine, the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Cyprus.

Pococke was a proficient in the knowledge of the classics and of antiquities; and his work has generally been regarded as one of the most important of all those which have respect to the East.

It has been often reprinted, and many editions of it have been published in the German language.

After all, however, it is not so much to be relied on as the work of Shaw.

The author was in the East less than half the period of time that Shaw resided there.

Pococke very often relates what others told him, and what he believed upon their credit; and not unfrequently, as Michaelis has said, ‘one must distinguish between Pococke the eye-witness, and Pococke who heard the story of others.’ And the difficulty is, that the author has written in such a way, that oftentimes this distinction is not easily made.

Pococke made some severe criticisms on the work of Shaw abovementioned; but the latter triumphantly vindicated himself, in the supplementary volume of 1746.

Richard Pococke, the traveller, is not to be confounded (as he often has been) with the great Orientalist, Edward Pococke, first Professor of Arabic at Oxford, who resided six years at Aleppo, was worthy of a place among the most distinguished scholars of any age, and lived nearly a century earlier than our traveller.

In 1752, the work of F. L. Norden, entitled Voyage d’Egypte et de Nubie, was printed in two volumes folio, at Copenhagen, under the patronage of Christian the Sixth, King of Denmark; which was translated into English, and published at London, 1757; and republished, in the original, by L. Langlès, at Paris, in 1795, in three volumes quarto, with maps, plates, copious notes, and a full index.

Alexander Russell, in 1756, published The Natural History of Aleppo, &c. He was a physician to the English factory at Aleppo, for eleven years; and his remarks exhibit a minute and thorough knowledge of the plants, animals, climate, diseases, &c. of that oriental region.

The book has been often printed in England and in Germany.

But the greatest naturalist, of former days, who travelled in the East, still remains to be mentioned.

This was Frederic Hasselquist, a pupil and friend of Linnæus.

Hasselquist was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm and Upsala, and visited Palestine, during the years 1749–1752.

He died at Smyrna, on his return from that country, in 1752; and his Iter Palestinum was drawn up by Linnæus himself, from the notes of Hasselquist, and by order of the queen of Sweden.

The work extends to Egypt, as well as to Palestine, and remains, to the present time, one of the most distinguished of all the works which respect natural science, in regard to the East.

We pass by the less important productions of Ives, 1773; of G. Mariti, 1768; and of G. Höst, 1781; for the sake of touching more at large upon the noble work of C. Niebuhr, first published in 1772 at Copenhagen, entitled Beschreibung von Arabien; and at Paris, in 1779, with the title, Description de l’Arabie, which is one of the best editions of the work.

The expedition to which Niebuhr was attached, so much resembled that of Professors Ehrenberg and Hemprich, an account of which we have proposed to give, that it will not here be inappropriate to dwell a few moments upon it.

Michaelis, of Göttingen, was really the original author of this famous expedition.

He wrote to Count Bernstorff, one of the most intelligent and energetic of the king of Denmark’s ministers, and urged him to persuade the king to fit out a literary expedition to Arabia, for the mere purpose of promoting a knowledge of the East.

Bernstorff, following the suggestions of his friend at Göttingen, persuaded Frederic to engage in this undertaking.

Five distinguished men were nominated, for this purpose.

F. C. von Haven was to take charge of the department of languages; Peter Forskal, of natural history; C. C. Cramer, of medical science, with special regard to medicinal plants; Carsten Niebuhr, of astronomy and geography; and G. G. Baurenfeind was to superintend the drawings necessary for illustration.

This important mission embarked at Copenhagen, January 4th, 1761, but did not arrive at Mocha, in Yemen of Arabia, until the end of December, 1762.

Here, in about five months, Von Haven died; in two months more, Forskall deceased at Yerim, a village of Yemen; in another month, Baurenfeind fell a sacrifice to disease, at the island of Socotra, on his way to Bombay; and about six months after this, Cramer also died at Bombay.

Niebuhr, thus left alone, was not discouraged from his undertaking.

He spent ten years in the East, principally in Arabia, and then, on his return, published not only the work which has been mentioned above, but also Descriptiones Animalium, Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium, quæ in itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskal, taken from the notes of this skilful naturalist. To this was subjoined, from the same source, a botanical work, Flora Egyptiaco-Arabica; both printed at Copenhagen, in 1775.

Michaelis, at whose suggestion, as we have observed, this literary expedition had been sent out, drew up, for the sake of assisting their inquiries, a great number of questions, pertaining to various departments of literature and science, but especially to philology; which were published in an octavo volume, at Frankfort on the Mayne, in 1762, and forwarded to Niebuhr by the Swedish minister; a book, which does no less honor to his memory, than the mission itself does to Frederic the Fifth, who sent it out, and to Christian the Seventh, his successor, who, after the death of Frederic, continued to support and cherish it.

The fruits of this expedition have been lasting.

Niebuhr has been regarded, by all competent judges, as one of the most sober, judicious, authentic, and instructive of all the travellers whose works have appeared for the last half century.

His work is a kind of classic, in respect to the countries of which it treats.

The notes of his friend Forskal, are also regarded as one of the most scientific and authentic sources of natural knowledge, in respect to the East.

The later Travels into the East are so well known, that we shall do nothing more than advert to them, in the briefest manner; and this, only in respect to a few of the more valuable.

Bruce’s ‘Travels in Egypt and Abyssinia’ came out with a brilliant reputation; then declined almost to the ranks of romance; and are now rising again in credit.

Eyles Irwin, Sonnini, C. F. Volney, W. G. Browne, G. H. Olivier, E. D. Clarke, F. A. Chateaubriand, F. J. Mayeaux, J. H. Mayr, and T. R.

Joliffe, have all published works of value, the result of their travels in the East.

The most splendid work of this nature ever published, and which is not likely soon to have a rival, is the Description de l’Egypte, begun under Bonaparte, and completed by the present government of France.

In the expedition to Egypt, undertaken by Napoleon, were included a large company of learned men, in various departments of the arts and sciences.

Their stay was short in Egypt; but, while there, they were exceedingly active, and the result of their labors has been published in the imperial work just designated.

A commission was named by Bonaparte to superintend its publication; the members of which were Berthollet, Conté, Costaz, Degenettes, Fourier, Girard, Lancret, and Monge.

Conté and Lancret died, during the publication; and in their room were named Jomard and Jollois; to whom were also added Delile and Devilliers.

The work consists of nine volumes, each of the size of three folios, made up of plates; five volumes for the antiquities; two volumes illustrative of the present state of Egypt, and two for natural history.

The Atlas consists of fifty sheets.

The plates and atlas are accompanied with appropriate Explications des Planches, Descriptions, and Mémoires.

The whole costs above one thousand dollars.

A copy of this most magnificent work has been presented to the library of Harvard University, by one of her liberal and public-spirited alumni, of whom she can truly boast that she has very many.

A cheaper edition of this work (in which, we believe, the same plates have been employed) has been published, at Paris, since 1821, by the bookseller Mr Pancoucke.

Public libraries may afford to purchase this.

The text of this edition is printed in octavo, so as to be convenient for reading.

Of this great work, we propose at some future period to submit to our readers a more detailed account.

In 1803, U. J. Seezen commenced a journey to the East, and explored Syria, the Dead Sea, and parts of Arabia.

He was murdered by the wild Arabs in 1811.

The letters of this distinguished traveller, respecting the Jordan and the Dead Sea, were published by Baron de Zach, in his Monatlichen Correspondenz of 1808.

Very distinguished works in the department with which we are now concerned, are those of James Morier, particularly, his Second Journey through Persia, &c.; of Sir W. Ouseley, Secretary to the Persian embassy, under Sir G. Ouseley; of J. L. Burckhardt, published after his death by the Association for promoting discoveries, &c. in England, and translated by Gesenius into the German language.

Robert Ker Porter has also published a very valuable work on Georgia, Persia, Armenia, &c. Other works by Hamilton, Legh, and M. A. Scholz, professor of theology at Bonn, deserve very respectful mention.

With these brief preliminary notices of preceding works in this department, we now proceed to that immediately before us.

Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich were sent upon their literary and scientific expedition at the expense, originally, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin; but afterwards were supported by the King of Prussia.

After the return of the surviving member of this expedition, Dr Ehrenberg, from his travels, the Academy appointed a committee of distinguished members of their body, to make report of what had been accomplished by their literary missionaries.

The members of this committee, were Alexander von Humboldt, and Messrs Link, Lichtenstein, Rudolphi, and Weiss.

Their report was read before the Academy, by Von Humboldt, the chairman of the committee, on the thirteenth of November, 1826.

It presents a very interesting and scientific view, of what had been accomplished by their mission.

We proceed to lay the substance of it before the public; sometimes merely translating the language of the Report itself; but, for the most part, following the train of thought which it presents, and investing it with our own language, but in an abridged and condensed form.

The Report commences with some very just and sensible remarks on the important influence, which the sciences have upon each other, and the beneficial influence upon the whole, which results from the enlargement of any one of them.

The tenor of these remarks is as follows.

‘Every accession to collections of objects, for the purposes of science, produces an animating influence on the enlargement of human knowledge.

It would be a distinguished service, for the purpose of such enlargement, if any one, by long continuance in performing distant and dangerous journeys, should discover a great number of new natural substances; should preserve them in good condition, and cause them to be transported to Europe.

But the merit of this service is greatly enhanced, if men, who are sent out at the public expense, furnished with distinguished preparatory knowledge, and deeply penetrated with a feeling of their high scientific calling, exhibit themselves not only as collecting, with restless diligence, materials for the advancement of science, but at the same time, as profound and philosophic observers of nature.

‘Everything which relates to a geographical distribution of the forms of animals and plants; to the influence which the condition of the soil, the height of situation, and the various gradations of climate, exercise over organic life, can be investigated only by the immediate inspection of travellers upon the spot.

The customary habits of animals are not less important, than the knowledge of their formation, which determines those habits.

A great number of the nicest anatomical and physiological observations, can be made only upon the spot.

The geognostic knowledge of the earth will not be really advanced, by sending specimens of minerals, which are merely broken off in isolated pieces, without any principle for a guide, and without regard to the manner in which they are grouped in particular species of rock, or their relative predominance, or their transition into one another, or the sequel of their respective ages.

It is only the nice observer, who can truly aid the advances of geological knowledge.

A science, the essential characteristic of which is, a representation of the connexion which exists among phenomena, and the thorough investigation of the relations of heterogeneous masses of fossils, can never be promoted, even by the most active efforts of mere collectors without science; at least, not in any such measure as it may be, by those who are capable of accurately observing and describing.

Nor will it be aided by such efforts so much, in proportion, as the sciences of zoölogy and botany.

‘Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, to the choice of whom this Academy was led by their many distinguished works that had already been published, have, in the happiest manner, answered all the demands which could be made upon them, as learned travellers, even in the present improved state of knowledge.

The simple relation of what they have actually done, is the best proof of this.

They have made collections, as though it had been their sole object to make them. They have labored also for the preparation, preservation, and specific naming of the objects discovered, in such a manner as, perhaps, no other travellers ever did.

The specimens sent to the Royal Museum, filled one hundred and fourteen boxes each from twenty to thirty cubic feet in size.

The collective number of individual plants amounts to more than fortysix thousand; and of these there are two thousand nine hundred species.

The collective number of animals amounts to thirty-four thousand individuals, of which there are one hundred and thirtyfive species of mammalia, four hundred and thirty kinds of birds, five hundred and forty-six species of fishes and amphibia, six hundred kinds of annelida and crustacea, and two thousand species of insects.

The Royal Collection of Minerals is augmented by three hundred specimens of fossils, arranged according to their condition and super-position, which spreads much light over the internal formation of the earth, in remote lands, that have not hitherto been geologically investigated.

But all these collections of minerals, of phanerogamous and cryptogamous plants (the first class only of which comprises five or six hundred kinds hitherto unknown), and of the exterior forms of animals of all classes, especially of the lower, which have for the most part been hitherto neglected by travellers, however important they may be for the Royal Collection, and however much the free use of them may enlarge the boundaries and facilitate the knowledge of natural science, still, they are all of secondary importance, compared with the gain which will accrue to it, from the publication of the observations themselves, made and arranged by Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich.

‘An investigation of nature, in all the variety of her productions, and the coöperation of her powers, was the essential object of the expedition, of the fruits of which we now make a report to the Academy.

Travels for the purposes of geographical discovery, like those of Mungo Park, Burckhardt, Caillaud, and Clapperton, are of a different character, and answer claims of another kind.

By a careful separation of the different objects, which both the kinds of travels have respectively in view, your committee will place the subject in such a light, that a correct judgment may be formed of what has been accomplished.

To force one’s way into the interior of a yet unexplored country; to investigate the connexion of streams before unknown, or the separation of them; to discover towns, rich in population and in trade, which are quite unlooked-for evidences of the advance of human improvement, promises, by good right, a fame to the discoverer, which is scarcely excelled by any other, that results from the exhibition of courage and resolution, Geographical expeditions (we do not refer to such as slowly and almost imperceptibly, by means of astronomical observations, enlarge or correct our knowledge of the definite situation of places and countries, but to those which suddenly resolve some problem of long standing and great curiosity) excite, almost every where, a deep interest, which quickly diffuses itself widely abroad; nay, popular language even limits the word discoveries, to the results of undertakings purely geographical.

‘This partial view of what needs more thorough investigation, would ill become those who ought, with a lively acknowledgement of the mutual influence of the various branches of human knowledge upon each other, to comprehend, in one view, the knowledge of nature and of different countries, in all its parts.

Deeper investigation of the internal life of plants and animals; the discovery of organic forms, which serve, as middle links, to connect groups that otherwise would appear remote and isolated; and an enlarged knowledge of the connexion of meteorological phenomena, or of the play of the ever active magnetico-electrical powers of nature; certainly do not confer less honor upon the intellect of man, as to its most strenuous exertions, than geographical discoveries; or than the determination of relative distances, with which descriptive geography is concerned.

A right estimation of the bold and rapid traveller, Mungo Park, would surely not tax him with a fault, because his first journeys afforded no botanical or zoölogical results.

As little ought we to demand of excursions for the sake of mere natural science, that they should put on the splendor of geographical discoveries.

Every class of travels has a character appropriate to itself.

The meed of praise belongs to those travellers, who have accomplished what was proposed to be accomplished.

‘We have deemed it proper to preface our report respecting the travels of Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, with these general considerations, in order to turn the attention of the Academy to that which distinguishes this important undertaking, supported and encouraged by them, from other travels in Africa.

The variety of objects on which our naturalists have bestowed their attention, has made it necessary for the committee to speak separately of the gain, which the sciences of botany, zoölogy, comparative anatomy, and geology, have derived from their labors.

How much persevering diligence and exertion were necessary, in order to produce such results, will appear from a historical sketch of the journey itself, and from a consideration of the many hindrances, with which our travellers had almost incessantly to contend, and to which they were not unfrequently obliged to yield.’

A brief sketch of the journey itself is then subjoined by the committee, which is, in substance, as follows.

In 1820, the Baron von Minutoli determined on undertaking a journey to the East, for the purpose of antiquarian researches.

He proposed to the Royal Academy, that they should send out some young men of scientific acquirements, at the expense of the state, in order to accompany him.

The Royal Council gave permission to Mr Liman, professor of architecture, to attach himself to this expedition.

The Academy of Sciences also made a pecuniary grant, for a like purpose, to Doctors Ehrenberg and Hemprich (naturalists already distinguished by their publications), which appeared to them sufficient for their support, during one year.

At Rome, by the liberality of Prince Henry of Prussia, the literary mission was enlarged by the addition of Professor Scholtz, of Bonn, an orientalist of great acquisitions and of high promise.

The original plan of the Baron von Minutoli was to visit Egypt, with its Oases, the Cyrenaica, Dongola, the peninsula of Sinai, Palestine, Syria, and a part of Asia Minor; and then to return home by the way of Greece.

The naturalists were furnished by the Academy, with brief written instructions; and also with a number of questions relative to objects in those countries, on which they wished them to bestow special attention.

At the commencement of the month of August, the whole company, with the exception of Professor Liman, assembled at Trieste, and embarked on board of two vessels, which arrived in the harbor of Alexandria in Egypt, in September.

At this place, they obtained information respecting the practicability of a journey to the Cyrenaica, which satisfied them that no special danger would attend it. Mr Drovetti, the French consul, who had lived many years in Egypt, and had himself visited the Oasis of Siva, forwarded, with great readiness and obliging care, the preparations of the caravan; which consisted of fifty-six camels, and fifty-five armed Bedouin Arabs, among whom was an Arabian Emir, or chief, and his relatives.

The Baron von Minutoli had taken the precaution to obtain a firman from the Grand Seignior, and letters of recommendation from the Pacha of Egypt, to Halil, Bey of Derne, on which the company relied for the removal of all obstacles of a political nature.

After the caravan left Alexandria, Professor Liman arrived, hastened on, and overtook it at Abusir.

Excessive haste had made him neglect to provide necessary clothing; and although his companions did the utmost in their power to accommodate him, yet his deficiency in this respect probably contributed very much to the lamented failure of his health.

The baseness of the free Bedouins now began daily to excite warm contention among the caravan.

They belonged to several tribes; and when the company had already advanced far into the Libyan desert, the Hadgi Endaui declared, that he could exercise no control over these different clans.

His impatience became even as great as that of the rest of the caravan.

Under these inauspicious circumstances, which rendered watches by night necessary, the caravan attained to a point, which was only one day’s journey distant from the borders of the regency of Tripoli.

The chief of the Bedouins declared, that he could not pass the boundaries, without the express permission of Halil Bey in Derne.

Messengers were sent forward, in consequence of this, with the letters of recommendation. But as the contention among the Bedouins daily increased, the caravan was divided, so that Von Minutoli, with the chief of the Bedouins, and the principal interpreter, went over Ammonium, to Kahira; and the other part of the caravan, to which the naturalists and the artist were attached, waited the return of the messengers sent to Halil Bey.

The separation, just described, took place at Bir el Kor.

For seventeen days they waited in the desert, and no messenger returned.

Travellers, with whom they met, informed them that Halil Bey was in consternation at a message from a caravan in which a general (General von Minutoli) was found.

By a still longer delay, the time, for which the camels were hired, expired.

It was then determined to go to the Oasis of Siva, where they hoped to find protection against their own Bedouins.

They made an offer to a leader of a Bedouin clan, who remained behind, of a considerable present, in case he would bring to them a favorable answer from Halil Bay of Derne.

But in all their hopes they were deceived.

The caravan travelled, almost without intermission, five days and five nights, through the desert.

At Siva, the chiefs, who exercised supreme authority over the Oasis, denounced the travellers as spies, and threatened to shoot them, if they passed over certain designated boundaries.

On their return to Alexandria, in consequence of the cold and the fatigues of the journey, Professor Liman and William Söllner, one of the aids of the naturalists, were taken sick.

Both, however, reached Alexandria, but fell a sacrifice there, in the beginning of December, to the strenuous efforts which they had made.

The orientalist, Professor Scholtz, separated from the company at Kahira, and directed his way toward Palestine.

After their arrival at Alexandria, Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich followed closely the plan of journeying, which had been before marked out.

In March they made an excursion into the province of Fayoum.

Here their progress was interrupted, by a nervous fever which seized Dr Ehrenberg, and lasted three months; which time they spent under a tent at the foot of the great pyramid in Sakhara.

Nothing but the most assiduous care of his companion saved the life of Dr Ehrenberg.

Near the end of July, the travellers moved forward again through Fayoum.

This journey proved more prolific for the department of entomology than any other.

At the Sea of Mœris they lost another of their aids, F. Kreysel, by a dysentery, which came on in consequence of a cold caught during an excursion upon the lake.

The money, which the Academy of Sciences had supplied from their own resources, was now all expended, and the journey would have ended here, if the wish of the Academy had not been seconded, in the most energetic manner, by the minister of state, Baron von Altenstein.

Our travellers came to a determination, indulging the well grounded hope that they might discover new forms of physical bodies in the southern regions, to follow on in the train of Mohammed Ali’s victorious army.

Between August, 1821, and February, 1823, they had advanced through Nubia to Dongola.

All the expectations, which could be excited by countries never before investigated by naturalists, were here most happily fulfilled.

Ehrenberg and Hemprich advanced through Nubia even into the desert near Embukol and Corti, which separates Sennaar, Cordofan, and Dongola.

The exhaustion of their pecuniary means, and the wish to transport, in safety, the natural objects, which they had already collected, occasioned our travellers here to separate from each other.

Dr Hemprich went forward with the collections to Alexandria, where, instead of the money which he looked for, he found orders to return.

Dr Ehrenberg, who had remained at Dongola, speedily left that country, which was now thrown into great confusion, by a revolution, and by the assassination of Ismael Pacha.

The intermittent fever of the tropics had greatly injured his health.

On this journey, the Italian, Vincenzo, was drowned in the Nile, and the interpreter, Ibrahim, died of the plague.

Our travellers were now forced to sell their camels and effects in Egypt.

But while they were making preparation for their return according to orders, the joyful intelligence came, that the government had agreed to make considerable advances of money, to enable them to continue their undertaking.

In order that they might employ the time in a profitable manner, until pecuniary supplies should be received, they determined to visit the Gulf of Suez, the cliffs of Sinai, and the islands along the coast of Akaba, as far as Moile.

This excursion lasted nine months, namely, from May, 1823, to March, 1824.

Dr Hemprich first returned with the collections they had made on the peninsula, to Alexandria, where he found only half the sum of money which they expected.

Dr Ehrenberg stayed five months longer at Tor; but in a very perplexing condition, suffering even for the necessaries of life.

The plan, which had been before concerted, for the travellers to embark on board a vessel at Tor and sail to Abyssinia, was now necessarily abandoned.

It was only after Dr Ehrenberg’s return to Alexandria, that the darkness, which brooded over the arrival of the funds granted by the Prussian government, was dissipated.

The sad intelligence arrived, that the Prussian consul at Trieste, with whom the pecuniary advances in question had been deposited, had become a bankrupt, and committed suicide.

Nothing remained now, but for our travellers to procure new orders and new advances of funds.

The plague was raging in Egypt; and instead of remaining there idle, it seemed to them more useful to visit Mount Lebanon, at a favorable season of the year, which would be only a journey of ten or twelve days, in case it were made by sea.

A stay of three months, in this region, sufficed for visiting twice the ridges of this mountain covered with snow, and for travelling over Sanin, through Cœlosyria, to the ruins of Balbec, and then from Balbec, over Bischerra and the cedar-forests of Lebanon, to the coast of Tripoli.

In the beginning of August, 1824, our travellers again reached Damietta and Alexandria.

Their company now sustained a new loss.

On their return from Syria, one of their European aids died of the intermittent fever.

Happily, in the mean time, new orders respecting their journey, and pecuniary supplies to continue it, had already arrived.

With newly animated courage, Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich immediately set out upon their long wished for journey to Abyssinia.

The Red Sea promised them a rich booty in corals, annelidæ, and mollusca.

The fragments, which had been saved out of Forskal’s papers, served to excite to new investigations in those tepid waters, for the extension of the science of ichthyology.

The journey to Abyssinia was commenced, on the thirteenth of November, 1824.

They proceeded, first, from Suez to Jedda, by sea.

Thence they made an excursion to Mecca, in order to gain some definite knowledge of the famous balsam-plant.

Farther south, in Gumfude, in Arabia Deserta, a Turkish governor showed his gratitude to them for the medical aid which they had afforded him.

He gave them a military escort, which would enable them, in safety, to visit the neighboring mountains of Derban.

In the further prosecution of their voyage by sea, important objects of observation occurred, namely, the volcanic island of rocks, Ketumbul, and another, frequented by gazelles, and named Farsan by its inhabitants.

The last is wanting, in the chart which accompanies Lord Valentia’s Travels.

From Gisan, a border-town between Arabia Felix and Arabia Deserta, our naturalists went to Loheia; near which the unfortunate Forskal congratulates himself on having found the greatest treasures of Arabian plants.

Farther south, they visited Kameran, Hauakel, and Dalac; and on the twentyfourth of April, 1825, they arrived at the harbor of Massaua.

At this place, in a southwest direction, the Abyssinian highlands commence.

This was the particular point which our travellers were desirous of attaining.

Dr Hemprich made an excursion to the mountains of Geelam.

Dr Ehrenberg went to the mountains of Taranta, as far as the hot springs of Eilet.

On the slope of the highlands of Abyssinia, productions of nature were collected, which, in respect to their locality, are certainly the rarest which any European museum can boast.

Unhappily, however, the promising prospects of our travellers were soon obscured, by new accidents.

An epidemic disease raged at Massaua, by which Niemeyer, a native of Brunswick, and one of their aids, lost his life.

All the other travellers, except the Italian, Finzi, who had been hired as a painter, fell sick, and for a long time were in great danger.

Dr Hemprich, wearied out by his laborious journey to the mountains, died on the thirtieth of June; after he had, for five years, given proof of most distinguished talents, and of restless activity, and personal energy and resolution.

Dr Ehrenberg, deeply afflicted by the loss of his friend, now thought only of his return; and after ten months’ absence, he reached Alexandria, by travelling over Jedda, Cossir, and Kahira.

On the first of November, 1825, he embarked here for the port of Trieste.

‘Such,’ say the committee, ‘is the general view of the regions, in which the observations of our travellers were made.

In the relation which follows, respecting what was achieved by them for botany and the geography of plants, for zoölogy and comparative anatomy, for geology and mineralogy, for the knowledge of countries and nations, your committee will not separate the labors of Ehrenberg and Hemprich; since both these naturalists were connected by the closest ties of friendship, and before their journey, and during the same, expressed the desire, that all which had been done should be attributed to them both in common.’

The committee next proceed to a particular account of the results of this expedition, in regard to several of the physical sciences and some others.

We must only give a very brief summary of these particulars.

I. Botany.

Here, the harvest was beyond all expectation.

The number of species collected amounts to two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.

Of these, one thousand and thirtyfive belong to Egypt and Dongola; seven hundred to Arabia and Abyssinia; and one thousand one hundred and forty to Mount Lebanon.

The number for Lebanon is very remarkable, as the travellers spent but two months there, and consequently only one season for plants.

Many species of these plants were collected in great numbers; so that the whole amount rises to forty-six thousand seven hundred and fifty.

The seeds of six hundred and ninety-nine species were gathered, and sent to the Royal Garden; where more than three hundred kinds have flowered, and among these many not hitherto described.

The number of plants, not before described, may, in the whole, be reckoned at six hundred.

The specimens of woods are forty-four; and the articles of medicine, belonging to the animal kingdom, amount to forty.

The young shoots, to the number of forty-eight, which were forwarded in order to be planted, all died.

The investigation of plants on the spot, during their growth, extends to more than one thousand kinds.

Flowers and fruits were analysed in abundance, and drawings of them were made, as also of the succulent plants.

The distinguished talent of Dr Ehrenberg in sketching, served an important purpose here; and he has exhibited much skill in discriminating the different kinds of foreign trees.

Most of the kinds discovered by Forskal, were found again by these travellers.

Myrrh the travellers themselves gathered from the Amyris Kataf.

The different trees from which the Gum Arabic and the leaves of the Senna are gathered, are accurately described by them.

They have also given information respecting the manner in which aloes is obtained.

Three new species of the bread-fruit tree were also observed by them, namely, Zygophyllum album, Panicum turgidum, and Cucumis farinosa.

The color of the Red Sea, has long given occasion to a variety of conjectures and speculations.

Dr Ehrenberg discovered, that it is owing to small animalcules (which he names Oscillatoria), that hold a rank about midway between plants and animals.

Through Dr Ehrenberg, we now know, that the various kinds of mould (which consists of small plants, that are produced upon substances in a state of decay) are altogether the same, under all the varieties of climate; which also shows, that the inferior kinds of vegetation are every where the same.

The beginnings of vegetation, on the low islands in the Red Sea, were accurately observed by the travellers.

The prevalence of plants, both cultivated and wild, was also a subject of their particular attention; so that the science of the geography of plants will be greatly enlarged by them.

II. Zoölogy.

This department of science was an object of special attention.

As to the extent and variety of subjects, and carefully conducted experiments, as well as in respect to fundamental observations and facts, the labors of our travellers here were not only of equal magnitude with those in other departments of science, but were of so great importance, that if these alone had been performed, signal gain to the cause of science would have resulted from their undertaking.

It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how they could have done so much here, while they also effected so much in other departments.

A brief sketch of the result of their labors, will justify this representation.

Of the class Mammalia, they sent to Europe no less than five hundred and ninety individuals, which belonged to one hundred and thirty-five different species.

Very few of these had previously been either generally known, or accurately described.

The specimens, and the remarks by which they were accompanied, afford very important explanations of older writers, and solutions of the doubts of more recent ones, respecting the imaginary representations of the ancients.

The number and selection of the specimens also give, at the same time, a just representation of the changes occasioned by sex, age, and season.

Anatomical examinations, also, which had respect to each of these circumstances, completed the circle of knowledge respecting these objects; and have left very little to be accomplished by subsequent investigators.

The few known objects among those examined have become now more satisfactorily known, through the labors of our travellers, in respect to the countries where they are found, and with regard to the changes produced upon them, as to their form, by the influence of various climates.

Here the Report touches upon a great many particulars, in regard to which, either corrections of old opinions have been made, or information entirely new has been communicated.

Our travellers met with many species, belonging to a variety of genera, which were before unknown in Europe.

The incisor animals, the leap-mouse, the squirrel (new varieties of which were found on Mount Lebanon), the monkey, the various kinds of beasts and birds of prey, the Cerdo of the ancients, wild dogs and cats, foxes, jackalls, weasels, bears, ruminating animals, domestic animals, the hippopotamus, &c. were all subjects of examination; the result of which has been much enlargement of knowledge, in respect both to their nature and their varieties.

Ornithology also received its due share of attention.

The number of specimens, of the various kinds of birds, of which the skins were preserved and stuffed, or the whole were preserved in spirits of wine, amounts to four thousand six hundred and seventy-one individuals, which belong to four hundred and twenty-nine species.

Some of the most remarkable specimens among these, are, the ostrich of Cordofan, the magnificent purple stork, the long beaked ibis, the great Egyptian monk-hawk, the white-headed large falcon (probably the original of the falcon which is so often represented in the Egyptian mythology in connexion with the solar god, Phne), the grey and black-headed seagulls, and the Dromas Ardeola, of which last only one specimen was before known.

The genera Anas, Totanas, and Tringa, are the only genera, to which no additions were made by the researches of our travellers.

To all the other genera, many new kinds, before unknown, were added.

It is remarkable, that a striking identity was found to exist, between the water-fowl of the Red Sea, and those which are found on the coast of Brazil.

Of Amphibia, twenty-seven were preserved in skins, six as skeletons, and seven hundred and four in spirits of wine.

The number of species amounts to one hundred and twenty.

Of fish, there are two thousand one hundred and forty-four specimens.

In skins, one hundred and seventy-four; as skeletons, eighty-four; in spirits of wine, two thousand one hundred and fifty-six.

The whole number of species amounts to four hundred and twenty-six; of which the Red Sea afforded three hundred and ten.

One hundred and ten species of these, Dr Ehrenberg and his coädjutor Finzi have painted and colored to the life.

The flying-fish of the Red Sea, perhaps the winged Selav (שלו) mentioned in Exodus xvi. 13, that supplied the Israelites with food, our travellers met with at Rhalim (Elim), near where the Israelites received this supply.

In a violent storm, they often fly on board of ships, in great numbers.

Such is the suggestion of the committee, in regard to this subject.

They also add, that perhaps the occurrence of the Selav, (in our English version of the Scriptures, Exodus xvi. 13, rendered quail), may be accounted for, by the supposition, that a great multitude of locusts were thrown upon the shore of the sea, dead, but not putrid, that is, recently drowned.

This last supposition is not new.

It was made, long ago, by Ludolf, in his Comment.

ad Historiam Ethiopicam, Lib. I. c. 13. p. 172. Niebuhr adopts the same supposition in his Description de l’Arabie.

But there are strong reasons to doubt its correctness.

In Leviticus xi. 22., where the kinds of locusts are specified which it was lawful to eat, no Selav is found.

In Psalms lxxviii. 27., this same Selav is called , winged fowl, a name not appropriate to locusts.

Nor is the opinion, that winged fish were the Selav, new. Rudeck (in Ichthyol.

B. C. Upsal.

1705, p. 35) long ago advanced it.

But there is little probability of its correctness.

In the first place, the number of these flying-fish (which are quite small in size) at any one place, would ill suffice to feed three millions of people, and this plenteously.

Besides, these fish never take their flight over land.

They only rise a small distance above the water, continue their flight for a little space, and then necessarily descend again, for respiration, into their native element.

So says Hasselquist, who is worthy of all credit, in his Palæstinense Itinerarium, p. 255, German edition; so says Niebuhr, in his Description de l’Arabie So, too, a very recent representation of these fish, by the Rev. Mr Stewart, in his ‘Journal of a Residence at Hawaii,’ presents the subject.

They go in shoals, and are often pursued by the larger fish, for the sake of prey.

They avoid them for a while by rising out of the water.

But as they cannot continue their flight, but must speedily descend, the pursuers watch them while in the air, and often receive them as they descend, in their opened mouths.

The idea of such fish taking a flight over land, for some distance, is an extravagance, which we trust the travellers will not maintain in their work; whatever the committee may have thought upon this subject.

At Rhalim, Ehrenberg and Hemprich may have seen flying-fish; but to have seen them taking a land-flight, unless by mere accident, such as often throws them on board of ships, seems really to be out of question.

Whatever may be the meaning of Selav, then, in Exodus xvi. 13., we are well persuaded it is neither locusts nor flying-fish.

But as we are not now writing a commentary on the Scriptures, we cannot stop further to inquire what the word does mean, as used by the sacred writer.

Specimens of fresh-water fish were collected by the travellers from the Nile, the Nahhr el Kelb and the Nahhr Ibrahim in Syria, from the outlets of the Warm Springs at Rhalim in Tor on Sinai, from the previously unknown streams of Wadi Kanune and Wadi Djara in the Arabian Desert, and from the outlet of the Sun Spring, in the Oasis of Ammonium.

Of Mollusca they gathered three thousand five hundred and eight, namely, two thousand five hundred and sixty-seven Conchylia, and eight hundred and fifty-one of other kinds.

The species amount to three hundred and ten.

The latest enumeration before this, of Conchylia to be found in the Red Sea, was by Professor Brocchi, in the ‘Biblioteca Italiana,’ which comprises only ninety-one species.

With Annelidæ our travellers filled two hundred and sixtyone glass vessels, comprising sixty-seven species.

All these were investigated by the aid of the microscope, described, and the characteristics of the new kinds accurately delineated.

Of Crustacea six hundred and seventy-five were gathered, two hundred and three preserved by drying, and four hundred and seventy-two in spirits of wine.

Of Arachnoidæ, two hundred and seventy-five, belonging to one hundred and twenty species.

Of insects, more than twenty thousand specimens, of between one thousand five hundred and two thousand species.

Clouds of locusts they also observed, and forwarded specimens of them.

With Epizoa they filled one hundred and two glass vessels; with Entozoa, six hundred, and of these there were one hundred and ninety-eight species.

Of Echinodermæ they collected three hundred and sixty-five kinds; of Acalephæ, twenty kinds; of Polypi and Corals, sixty-two kinds; of Infusoria, fifty different forms.

Most of these various animals are represented by drawings, and are accurately described, in reference to their locality and zoölogical geography.

Never before, we believe, was a collection, so rich, made at any one time, from the animal kingdom, or one which promises so much to enlarge the science of zoölogy.

III. Zoötomy and Physiology.

Our travellers bestowed more pains on the anatomical examinations of the smaller, than of the larger animals; because a due examination of many small subjects can be made only when they are recent.

By this means many new genera and species have been discovered.

The formation, also, has been oftentimes very satisfactorily explained by them.

The anatomy of insects, in the Linnæan sense of this word, has been greatly enriched by them, by a series of observations on the pupils of insects’ eyes, illustrated by colored engravings; on the formation of the coloring in the same, during their metamorphosis; and on the metamorphosis itself.

Appropriate drawings illustrate the position of the entrails of one hundred and two different species of fish; besides which are a multitude of drawings illustrating the animals themselves.

Very extensive representations are made of Amphibia, particularly of their eyes.

Of birds, one hundred and fifty-three eggs and many nests have been gathered.

The tongues of fifty-two kinds, and the palates of fifteen kinds, have also been represented by drawings.

The fœtus of fishes, amphibia, fowls, and mammalia, have also been preserved.

Skeletons and skulls of the Hippopotamus, the Hyrax Syriacus, gazelles, &c. have also been collected.

For years to come, the whole of these treasures cannot be fully displayed to the public.

IV. Results for Geology and the science of Fossils.

In large districts of country, through which our travellers went, they observed in the most careful manner the relations of locality.

The masses of stone, of various kinds, are divided into five groups; 1. The alluvial and tertiary formations of Egypt and the neighboring desert.

2. The original and transition ledges of the cataracts, the granular lime-stone, and the hornblend stone, of Nubia, together with the salt rock of Dongola. 3. The porphyry and Syenite formations of Sinai, and the peninsula in its neighborhood.

4. The Jura lime-stone of Lebanon, with petrifactions of fish three thousand feet above the sea at Jebbehl, and sea-muscles at Sanin near to the region of snow, and also Bovey-coal in sand stone and slate clay at Bischerra, and Basalt at Haddet, some six thousand feet above the sea. 5. The coasts of the Red Sea, with the volcanic island of Ketumbul, and the southeast slope of the Abyssinian mountains.

In all these countries, Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich observed a striking similarity of geological relations, particularly in the association of mountainous masses.

Several sketches of mineralogical charts give testimony of the untiring activity of the travellers in this part of their labors.

V. Countries and Nations.

Astronomical calculations, to fix the latitude and longitude of places, our travellers did not make.

But they often measured the angles which the most important places made with the magnetic meridian.

They made estimates of distances, and kept an accurate itinerary.

At the entrance of the bay of Akaba, and at Gisan, Dr Ehrenberg took sketches of several islands which are not noticed in Lord Valentia’s charts.

The island of Farsan, three days’ journey in circumference, with three villages and several harbors for small vessels, is to be regarded as a new discovery.

Special consideration, also, is due to the routes from Tor to Sinai and Suez; over Beda to the rush swamp near Mount Goaebe; from Suez to Cameran, along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, where are a multitude of anchoring places unknown to geographers; from Gumfude in the country of the Wechabites, to Mount Derban; from Massaua in Abyssinia, to the Taranta mountains and the warm springs in Eilet; from the two snowy peaks of Lebanon, through Cœlosyria, to Balbec, and from thence to the coast of Tripoli; from Alexandria to Bir el Kor, and thence to the Oasis of Siva.

In the countries on the northern coast of the Red Sea, geographical observations were collected, which may serve to cast light on the oldest and most venerable traditions respecting the human race.

The travellers saw Bir Beda, probably the hitherto undetermined Bedea of the Scriptures.

They also saw the sedge-sea, Yam-Suph ().

The ancient Midian, the place where Moses so long sojourned, is still marked by the situation of Magne, where are houses surrounded by gardens. At Tor, Ehrenberg and Hemprich recognised in the warm springs of Rhalim, the station of the Israelites at Elim.

Wells, in this country, are more lasting monuments of nature, than forests or sand hills.

Besides these geographical notices, our travellers have sent to Europe, 1. A catalogue of the establishments of the Maronites, in the northern part of Lebanon, both in the Latin and Arabic orthography, amounting in number to six hundred and nineteen, and written out for them by the secretary of the Emir Beschir, prince of Lebanon.

2. A catalogue of anchoring places, islands, coral reefs, and towns, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, between Suez and Cameran, in number two hundred and eighty-seven, and for the most part in the Arabic language.

3. A similar catalogue of places on the western coast of the Red Sea, in number eighty-six.

4. A chart of the country of the Wechabites, from Taife (near Mecca) to Assir and Gumfunde, by an Arabian, an officer in the army of the Pacha of Egypt.

5. A profile of the mountainous coast of the Red Sea, of Sinai, of Lebanon, and of the island of Cyprus, by Dr Ehrenberg.

Their journal contains, also, many remarks on the races of men, their customs, language, &c. Every where they have paid attention to the influence of climate on organic formation.

They have registered more than eight hundred thermometrical observations, on the average temperature of the climate within the tropics, or on the southern boundaries of the temperate zone, so little known hitherto by experiment.

Many mummies, also, of men and beasts, two papyrus rolls, found in Egypt, seven Arabic manuscripts, and an Abyssinian Bible (the Psalms in the Amharic language), are parts of the riches which they have amassed.

Such is a brief view of the scientifical results of the labors of Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and the two coasts of the Red Sea.

The committee, at the close of their excellent report, observe, that all the labors of the travellers would be of little avail (however important in themselves they may be, for the enlargement of natural science and of physical geography), provided the government should not assist in promoting the publication of their results.

They express the fullest confidence, however, that this will be done.

They then conclude their report, by urging on the Academy the importance of taking effectual measures that the contemplated work, with all its maps and very numerous drawings, should be executed in a style worthy of the times, of the present improvements in science, and of the source from which the publication proceeds, without making it, at the same time, too expensive for the purchase of naturalists in general.

They recommend, in regard to the drawings, that where new genera or species are to be represented, sketches as well as full forms should be employed, so as to make the representations more graphic and complete.

A close imitation of the masterly sketches of Dr Ehrenberg is all which they deem to be necessary, fully to accomplish this purpose.

The Report ends, by recommending to the Academy a speedy publication of the proposed work.

An Appendix to the Report informs us of the plan, sketched out by Dr Ehrenberg, the surviving member of the literary mission, for the intended publication.

Our scientific readers will be gratified, we trust, with a brief view of this plan.

The work is to be divided into two principal parts, bearing the common title, Travels for the purposes of Natural History, in Northern Africa and Western Asia.

The first part is to contain a narration of the journey; the second, a copious representation and description of the natural objects examined.

The first part is to be subdivided into, 1. Travels from Alexandria to the Cyrenaica.

2. To Upper Egypt, Fayoum, and Dongola. 3. Remarks on Egypt.

4. Journey to Mount Sinai.

5. To Syria and Lebanon.

6. To Arabia and Abyssinia.

These are to be accompanied with various remarks and charts, appropriate to their respective contents.

The remarks will have respect to the geological and physical peculiarities of countries, and also their points of agreement with other known countries; to the physical and political condition of the inhabitants, their customs, sports, their improvement in language, their arts, trade, intercourse, &c.; to the organic productions of the countries, and as well the wild as the domestic plants and animals of the same.

Of maps, drawings, catalogues, &c. to accompany the work, are designated, a chart of the Red Sea, with many geographical corrections; a profile of the whole eastern coast of the Red Sea, and of a part of the western coast; a list of all the anchoring places and islands, on the eastern coast of the same, and also of some on the western coast; a view of Mount Sinai, from the highest peak of St Catharine, with the designation of the angles made by several islands and mountain peaks, which fall within the horizon of the same; an Arabic chart of the Hedjas, by an Arabian in the army of the Pacha of Egypt, which subdued the Wechabites; the route from Beirout in Syria, over the snowy peaks of Sanin on Lebanon, through Cœlosyria to Balbec, &c. and thence to Tripoli; an Arabic and Latin catalogue of all the places (six hundred and nineteen in number) in the northeast part of Lebanon; a series of seven hundred and seventy-three observations with the thermometer, mostly in tropical countries; vocabularies of several Arabic dialects, of the Berber language, of the Massaua, of the Amharic, of the Tigne, of the Saho, and of the Yaenke tongues, the last of which (hitherto unknown) is spoken by a negro tribe, on the coast of Sennaar; directions in regard to the manner of travelling, and collecting natural objects, &c.; and portraits of the various kinds of dress, of sailing vessels, of utensils, of kitchen vegetables, &c.

The first part of the work is to be contained in two volumes, with an Appendix, embracing the matters above enumerated.

The second part, designed principally for naturalists, is to be subdivided into four parts. 1. Descriptive zoölogy, with anatomy and physiology.

2. Plates representing the newly discovered animals, &c., with a short text accompanying them, to be published in numbers.

3. Descriptive botany.

4. Sketches of plants, with a short descriptive text, &c., to be issued in numbers.

Such is the prospect of this magnificent and laborious work; a work calculated to exhibit to the highest advantage, what the iron diligence of the German literati is wont to accomplish.

No nation on earth has more enthusiasm and scientific ardor, than the Germans; and none are more competent to apply these qualifications most effectually to the objects which come within their limits.

The French corps of scientific men are, indeed, exceedingly active and laborious; and to none are the sciences of chemistry, physiology, mathematics, astronomy, pharmacy, and anatomy more deeply indebted.

But there is, generally speaking, more of persevering and minutely accurate diligence among the Germans.

We cannot help doing honor to the king of Prussia and his ministry, as well as to the Royal Academy at Berlin, for the generous support which they have given to the scientific expedition, which has been described in the preceding pages.

Nor is this the only noble transaction, in which the king of Prussia has been deeply concerned.

Within a few years, he has made freemen of a large portion of his subjects, by making them lords of the soil which they cultivate, possessors by mere fee simple.

He has raised up the second, if not the first University of learning, now in existence.

We refer to that of Berlin, which is not yet twenty years old.

He has greatly improved other Universities in his territory, particularly that of Halle.

He supports, at his own expense, as we are credibly informed, twenty-five theological students at Wittenberg, on the very spot where Luther taught, and where three professors of theology still remain, one of whom is the well known Schleusner.

He has made provision, that all the children of his realm shall be taught to read, and be in possession of a Bible.

He every year bestows some distinguished honor or privilege on literary men, who contribute to the honor of his kingdom, and the instruction of his subjects.

All this, too, with very moderate pecuniary resources, Prussia having scarcely any commerce with foreign countries.

When we think on this, and compare it with what our governments are doing in the cause of science and literature, our hearts almost melt within us.

It has generally been the reproach of republics, that they had no sympathy for literature.

Nay, they have often been reproached with even fearing and hating it, lest it should tend, if much honored, to introduce inequality among the citizens.

When we call to mind, too, that literature is even taxed by our general government, that a poor student, who has not one dollar in his pocket, is obliged to pay one shilling on the pound avoirdupois, for every Latin and Greek book which he imports from Europe, which duty often amounts to five or even ten times the original price of the book; we are ready to ask, Where is the boasted illumination and liberality of the republic, and of the age, in which we live?

We do beseech the enlightened men, who are at the head of our affairs, both in the general and state governments, to wipe away the reproach which rests upon us in this respect; and at least, not to frown upon literary effort, by imposing heavy taxation upon it.

Every petty state in Germany, not so large as one of our counties, must have its University; and that generously supported too.

Here, if the Universities live, it is well; a Governor’s speech, or a President’s message boasts of them to the world.

If they die, too, it is equally well, so far as our political enthusiasts are concerned.

In the scramble for office which pervades all ranks, the higher and permanent interests, and lasting glory of the country are apt to be forgotten.

The question, who are to be our next presidents, and governors, and senators, and representatives, absorbs all other inquiries.

A much deeper interest is felt in the business of governing, than in the inquiry, whether, by and by, there will be anything worth being governed.

We make the appeal to the country, and to the world, fearlessly in regard to this subject.

Facts are before the eyes of every well-informed, clear-sighted man, which will not permit him to contradict this statement.

A few solitary and honorable exceptions only can be made to it, in the appropriation of money for the benefit of literary seminaries.

Where are the voyages, like that of Ehrenberg and Hemprich, supported by government or by literary societies?

We are aware that our own western wilds have been partially explored, by order of government.

We know, too, that the intelligent and active men in office, who have been principally concerned in all this, would have done very much more of the same nature, if their countrymen would have suffered them. We do hope, that more men of the like ardor will be raised up, who, heedless whether they carry the next election or not, will look at higher objects, and do something of permanent benefit to the interests of science, something which will contribute to the lasting honor of their country.

We do believe there are men, now high in office, that would, with all their hearts, embark in such undertakings if they dared to do it.

May the day speedily dawn, when they will venture upon the experiment!

But we must return from our discursive review, and come to an end.

We trust the votaries of science, in this country, will thank us for laying before them the prospectus of a work, so important as that to be published under the auspices of the Royal Academy at Berlin.

We cannot refrain from expressing our hope, our earnest desire, that some of our Colleges, or some Society of literary and scientific men among us, will not fail to make immediate arrangements to secure the importation and translation of the first volumes of the work above announced, and their republication in this country, for the benefit of our numerous naturalists, and through them, for the benefit of our community.

Geography, too, is to receive no unimportant accession from the work.

Might we be permitted to name any literary Society, on whom we should feel the greatest liberty to call, and to urge on them this undertaking, we should name the Corporation of Harvard University, or some of the literary and scientific Societies in its neighborhood.

It is worthy of their attention, and would well repay them for all the trouble and expense which it might occasion.

Every genuine son of science, of literature, or of the arts, we are sure, will join with us in these wishes.

Every man, who is enlightened, and who loves his country, will rejoice to see the means and the spirit of literature and of science multiplied and extended.