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a curiosity of literature which it possesses. The national library, formerly the library of Mr. Jefferson, is an object calculated to attract the attention and gratify the curiosity of the enlightened traveller. It contains almost all the rare and valuable works in literature and science; and though much has been objected to it by ignorant men, it is not perhaps surpassed in literary value, selection and arrangement by any institution of the same character and extent in Europe. This library was purchased of Mr. Jefferson for a sum trifling in comparison with the real value of the collection, to supply the loss of the former library of Government, destroyed by the British. While the liberality of Congress was so munificently extended to themselves, it ought not to have escaped them, that an institution like this, so beneficial in its moral and intellectual tendencies, was entitled to their most serious attention. It became them, in a peculiar manner, as a body of enlightened men, to foster and encourage, by every possible means, an establishment calculated to reflect so much honour on the country: and, instead of the petty appropriation now made, at least five thousand dollars should have been annually bestowed, in order to increase the establishment, and render it worthy of a free and enlightened nation.

It rests with us now to make a few remarks on the prospects of future greatness, prosperity, and permanence held out to this city. It has been said, that much good often originates from much ap

parent evil; and the truth of this aphorism is exemplified by the late calamity which the city experienced from the invasion of the late enemy. Great prejudices had existed in the legislative branch of the Government against this place, and many powerful efforts had been made to remove the seat of Government without success. The shock it received by its recent destruction had a tendency to further the object of its enemies. An attempt was therefore made with every prospect of success; but that attempt also failed, and now there scarcely remains a single doubt of its stability, or of the disposition of Congress to abandon every effort that may lead to the removal of the seat of Government. The invasion and destruction of the city, though an event in itself to be deplored, has yet been productive of much benefit, by begetting a confidence in the permanency of the seat of Government, and producing a disposition, on the part of Congress, to afford it every assistance and encouragement within their power. It is not necessary to look far forward to see this the most flourishing city in the United States. From the rapidity with which it has recently increased, in the value of its property, the number and respectability of its population, and extension of its internal commerce, we cannot avoid beholding the brilliant destiny to which it is hastening; and in its progress to that elevation to which it is certain, at no distant period, to attain, it has our warmest and most cordial wishes.

JOURNEY

JOURNEY ACROSS THE DESERT.

(From Pottinger's Travels.)

March 31st. We were on our camels this morning by four o'clock, and moved five miles west by south to a well, where we filled every thing that would contain water preparatory to encountering the desert. This well was at least one hundred and fifty feet deep, nearly square, and not more than six feet in diameter: the sides of it, for two fathoms below the surface, at which depth the strata became firm and hard, were propped by split date trees vertically placed, and held in that situation by the pressure of the ends of pieces of the same wood running horizontally across the pit. An aperture was left at one corner to admit a small bucket or copper vessel for drawing the water, which I was both surprized and disappointed, considering the deepness of the well, to find so brackish as to be barely palatable.

We quitted this well just as the sun rose, and proceeded the greater part of the way on foot, twenty-seven miles farther, over a desert of red sand, the particles of which were so light, that when taken in the hand they were scarcely more than palpable: the whole is thrown by winds into an irregular mass of waves principally running east and west, and varying in height from ten to twenty feet; most of these rise perpendicularly on the opposite side to that from which the prevailing wind blows (north-west), and might readily be fancied, at a distance, to resemble a new

brick wall. The side facing the wind slopes off with a gradual declivity to the base (or near it) of the next windward wave. » It again ascends in a straight line, in the same extraordinary manner as above described, so as to form a hollow or path between them. I kept as much in these paths as the direction I had to travel in would admit of, but had nevertheless exceeding difficulty and fatigue in urging the camels over the waves when it was requisite to do so, and more particularly where we had to clamber up the leeward or perpendicular face of them, in which attempt we were many times defeated, and reduced to go round until an easier place or turn in the wave offered. On the oblique or shelving side the camels got up pretty well, as their broad feet saved them from sinking deeper than we did ourselves, and the instant they found the top of the wave giving way from their weight, they most expertly dropt on their knees, and in that posture gently slid down with the sand, which was luckily so unconnected, that the leading camel usually caused a sufficient breach for the others to follow on foot." All symptoms of vegetation had ceased for the latter ten miles of my journey this day, except a few stunted bushes of the Taghuz and a hardy little plant called by the Belooches Sirrikoh, bearing a purple flower with a very powerful odoriferous smell. My guide appeared to be chiefly regulated in his movements by a chain of mountains that were at times just discernible to the southward. I did not halt until it was almost dark, being desirous of getting

through

through the desert as quickly as in my power. We spent the night under shelter of one of the sandwaves, where the atmosphere was uncommonly hot and close.

1st April. ftravelled to-day twenty miles across a desert of the same description as yesterday, and consequently the like impediments opposed me, which were trifling, however, compared with the distress suffered, not only by myself and people, but even the camels, from the floating particles of sand; a phenomenon which I am still at a loss to account for. When I first observed it, about ten a. m.. the desert seemed at the distance of half a mile or less, to have an elevated and flat surface from six to twelve inches higher than the summits of the waves. This vapour appeared to recede as we advanced, and once or twice completely encircled us, limiting the horizon to a very confined space, and conveying a most gloomy and unnatural sensation to the mind of the beholder: at the same moment we were imperceptibly covered with innumerable atoms of small sand, which getting into our eyes, mouths, and nostrils, caused excessive irritation attended with extreme thirst, that was increased in no small degree by the intense heat of the sun. On questioning my Brahooé guide who, though a perfectly wild savage, had more local knowledge than any other person of the party, he said that this annoyance was supposed by his countrymen and himself to originate in the solar beams causing the dust of the desert (as he emphatically styled it) to rise and float through the air; and, judg

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ing from experience, I should pronounce this idea to be partly correct, as I can aver that this sandy ccean was only visible during the hottest part of the day. To prevent the supposition of my having been deceived in its reality, I may here add, that I have seen this phenomenon and the Suhrab, or watery illusion, so frequent in deserts, called by French travellers the Mirage, in opposite quarters at the same precise moment, and that they were to my sight perfectly distinct; the former having a cloudy and dim aspect, whilst the latter is luminous, and can only be mistaken for water. to corroborate what I have advanced, I may likewise state that I afterwards was joined by a Fakeer from Kabool, who had come through the desert from Seistan, and told me that he had witnessed the moving sands to a much greater degree than I had described (or was willing to give him credit for), as he talked of being forced to sit down in consequence of the density of the cloud which enveloped him.

To proceed with my journal. Sixteen miles from our last halting-place, we reached the eastern bank of a dry river called the Boodoor: it was at least five hundred yards in breadth, running in a south-south-east direction towards the coast; the bed of it in many places impervious from a thick jungul of different kinds of trees and brush-wood, the haunt of wolves, jackalls, and other wild animals. We turned to the right, and proceeded five miles north-westerly up the river bed to a spot where there had a few months before been a village

aptly

aptly called Regan, whose inhabitants had gone to Gurmsyl (which district lies north-northwest of this place) owing to the scarcity. Here we halted on the western brink, and with much digging and difficulty procured two Mushks, or skins, of water. I imagine the direct course from the well we left yesterday morning to Regan, would have been about west; but our guide, fearing to lose himself, kept to the southward, where he could at intervals descry the mountains.

2d April. I set out from Regan just as the day began to dawn, and having made a westerly march of twenty-one miles, halted at three in the afternoon. The desert was not near so sandy, and in many places was composed of a hard black gravel without a trace of verdure, or even a bush to be seen. In the latter part of my route I could distinctly trace with my eye, a chain of lofty mountains stretching all round in front from south-west to northwest and when we alighted off the camels, my guide shewed me the break in them through which we were to gain egress from this inhospitable waste.

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I experienced this forenoon a violent tornado or gust of wind, accompanied by a torrent of rain which continued for half an hour, and was absorbed by the earth as it fell. It came on most unexpectedly, and had the guide not apprized me of its strength, we should probably have fared worse than we did, for it would have been an act of temerity to have tried to sit on the camels during its impetuous fury. Before it began, the sky was clear, save a

few small clouds in the northwest quarter, and the only antecedent warning it afforded, was the oppressive sultriness of the air and a vast number of whirlwinds springing up on all sides; the moment the Brahooć saw these whirlwinds disperse, which they did as if by magic, and a cloud of dust approaching, he advised us to dismount, and we had hardly time to do so and lodge ourselves snugly behind the camels, when the storm burst upon us with a furious blast of wind: the rain fell in the largest drops 1 ever remember to have seen, and the air was so completely darkencd, that I was absolutely unable to discern any thing at the distance of even five yards. Moorad happened to place himself about so many paces in front of me, and when I looked up, during the height of the tempest, I saw nothing of him, and therefore concluded he had shifted his position, but when it was over, I found him still in the same spot. These bursts are by no means rare, and though unpleasant at the instant, have their attendant advantages, as they cool and purify the atmosphere, which would otherwise be quite intolerable at any season, and is so notwithstanding their prevalence, throughout the hot months from June to September.

Within that period, the winds in this desert are often so scorching and destructive, as to kill any thing, either animal or vegetable, that may be exposed to them, and the route by which I travelled is then deemed impassable. This wind is distinguished every where in Beloochistan, by the different

names

names of Julot or Julo, the flame, and Badé Sumoom, the pestilential wind. So powerfully searching is its nature, that it has been known to kill camels or other hardy animals, and its effects on the human frame were related to me by those who had been eyewitnesses of them, as the most dreadful that can be imagined; the muscles of the unhappy sufferer become rigid and contracted; the skin shrivels, an agonizing sensation, as if the flesh was on fire, pervades the whole frame, and in the last stage it cracks into deep gashes, producing hemorrhage, that quickly ends this misery. In some instances life is annihilated instantaneously, and in others the unfortunate victim lingers for hours, or perhaps days, in the excruciating tortures I have described. To render this terrible scourge still more baneful, its approach is seldom, if ever foreseen; and among all the Belooches with whom I have conversed regarding it, no one asserted more than that they had heard it was indicated by an unusual oppression in the air, and a degree of heat that affected the eyes; the precaution then adopted, is to cover themselves over, and lie prostrate on the earth. A curious fact is established by this custom, that any cloth, however thin, will obviate the deleterious effects of the Badé Sumoom on the human body.

THE CITY OF HERAT.

(From the same.) The city of Herat is situated in a valley, surrounded by lofty

mountains, and contiguous to the northern ridge, which separates The valley extends at least thirty it from the country of Bokhara. miles, from east to west, and is about fifteen broad, watered by a river rising in the mountains and running through the centre; it is highly cultivated, and the whole face of it is covered with villages and gardens. The approach to Herat from the Zearutgah, lies four miles between orchards, with road we came to the river, over a capital road; at the end of this which there is a very ancient bridge, four hundred yards in length, built of burnt brick, and oil woman at her own private exsaid to have been erected by an pence; it is now, however, miserably decayed, and will soon tumble to pieces unless the government repair it. Previous to the building of this bridge the communication between the city and the country was yearly cut off, on the melting of the snow quent swell of the river. When in the mountains, and the conse. we had passed the bridge, we rode along a good road, to the city four miles through the suburbs gate.

The city covers an area of four lofty mud wall, with towers and square miles, and is fortified by a a wet ditch; in the northern face is a citadel elevated on a mound above the wall; this is a small square castle with towers at the angles, built of burnt brick, and the whole in line with the wall, and encompassed by a wet ditch, over which is a draw-bridge. Beyond this, there is also a recently ditch. The city has a gate in constructed outer wall and dry

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