other lake, with the exception of the Dead Sea; the specific gravity of which is 1211, while that of lake Ourmia was found by Dr. Marcet, who examined a specimen sent home by the late Mr. Browne, to be 1165·07. Salt lakes, entirely unconnected with the ocean, are by no means of frequent occurrence; the water of this last is so nearly saturated that it begins to deposit crystals the moment that heat is applied to it. It contains no lime, but yields about twenty times as much sulphuric acid, and six times as much muriatic acid, as sea-water does, No fish can live in it; the surface, however, is not, as has been stated, incrusted with salt, but appears as pellucid as that of the clearest rivulet.

These curious objects of natural history do not seem to have had any particular charms for our traveller; and fortunately Abbas Mirza (on whom he dwells with great complacency) did him the honour to invite him to join his suite on the visit he was about to make to Taheran, whither the king had ordered him to repair, to assist at the celebration of the feast of the Nowroose. The severity of the cold at Tabreez was greater than we should have expected to find it in this part of Persia.

Scarcely a day passes (Sir Robert says) without one or two persons being found frozen to death in the neighbourhood. Several instances which happened during my stay at Tabreez were particularly distressing; and amongst them was the perishing of three women and two men, with five asses belonging to them, which had taken shelter from a sudden drift of snow and wind under an arch of the Augi bridge. They were discovered after the storm had subsided perfectly dead, and as stiff as the blocks of ice which lay on each side of them. Another calamity of the kind I shall mention, as having a circumstance of greatly augmented pain connected with it. The gates of all towns and cities in Persia are shut a little after sun-set and re-opened at sun-rise. Strict adherence to this injunction, and carelessness or unavoidable delays on the part of travellers, often subject them to the inconvenience of reaching the gates when they are closed. Hence they must stay without till morning. And during the inclement season, at opening the gates, very often a terrible scene of death unfolds itself close to the threshold; old and young, animals and children, lying one lifeless heap. But the particular instance I would now recount relates to a solitary traveller, who had performed a long journey on his own horse, a member of their families to which these people are eminently attached. When he arrived at Tabreez the ingress was already barred. The night was one of the severest which had been known; and the poor man, to save himself from the fatal effects he too surely anticipated,' pierced his faithful horse with his dagger, and ripping up its body, thrust himself into it, in the vain hope of the warmth which might remain preserving his own vital heat till the morning; but in the morning,

when

when the gates were opened, he was found frozen to death in this horrible shroud.'-p. 247, 248.

On the 3d of March, he accompanied the prince (who was escorted by a little army) on his journey to Teheran, by the route of Mianna and Casvin. On the way they passed the spot where the unfortunate Browne was murdered, the interesting circumstances of which melancholy event are related as follows.

This gentleman was a man of indefatigable research, with a persevering industry in acquiring the means of pursuing his object equal to the enterprising spirit with which he breasted every difficulty in his way. Previous to his going to Persia, he had stopped some time in Constantinople to perfect himself in the Turkish language, and before he left that city he spoke it like a native. From a mistaken idea of facilitating his progress amongst the different Asiatic nations through which he might have occasion to pass in the route he had laid down for himself, he assumed the Turkish dress. Being thus equipped, he set forward with an intent to penetrate through Khorassan, and thence visit the unexplored and dangerous regions south of the Caspian, closing his researches in that direction at Astrakhan. During the early part of his Persian journey, he had a conference with His Britannic Majesty's ambassador Sir Gore Ouseley, and at Oujon was admitted to an audience of the Persian king. So little was danger from attacks of any kind apprehended by the persons best acquainted with the state of the country, that no difficulties whatever were suggested as likely to meet him, and accordingly he proceeded in full confidence. Having reached this pass of Irak, he stopped at the caravansary I have just described to take a little refreshment. That over, he remounted his horse, and leaving his servant to pack up the articles he had been using, and then follow him, he rode gently forward along the mountains. Mr. Browne had scarcely proceeded half a mile when suddenly two men on foot came up behind him, one of whom, with a blow from a club, before he was aware, struck him senseless from his horse. Several other villains at the same instant sprang from hollows in the hills, and bound him hand and foot. At this moment they offered him no further personal violence; but as soon as he had recovered from the stupor occasioned by the first mode of attack, he looked round and saw the robbers plundering both his baggage and his servant, the man having come forward on the road in obedience to the commands of his master. When the depredators found their victim restored to observation, they told him it was their intention to put an end to his life, but that was not the place where the final stroke should be made. Mr. Browne, incapable of resistance, calmly listened to his own sentence, but entreated them to spare his poor servant, and allow him to depart with his papers, which could be of no use to them. All this they granted and, what may appear still more extraordinary, these ferocious brigands, to whom the acquisition of arms must be as the staff of life, made the man a present of his master's pistols and double-barrelled gun; but they were English, and the marks might have betrayed

the

the new possessors. These singular robbers then permitted Mr. Browne to see his servant safe out of sight, before they laid further hands on himself, after which they carried him, and the property they had reserved for themselves, into a valley on the opposite side of the Kizzilouzan, and without further parley terminated his existence, it is supposed, by strangulation. They stripped his corpse of every part of its raiment, and then left it on the open ground a prey to wolves and other wild animals. The servant meanwhile made the best of his way towards Tabreez, where he related the tale I have just told.'-pp. 268— 270.

As they approached Casvin, the cold, together with the snow, gradually disappeared; numerous flourishing villages were seen amongst rich tracts of land, that already began to put forth the promise of an early and abundant harvest. The plain of Casvin extends south-east beyond Taheran to the foot of a lofty line of mountains south of the Caspian, in which is to be found the famous pass of Kawar, anciently called the Straits of the Caspian. No regular path confined their line of march; so that the horsemen galloped to and fro, throwing the dgirid, firing their pistols, shaking their long bamboo lances, and affecting to skirmish.

Before they reached Taheran, they received intelligence of the illness of Dr. Drummond Campbell, a friend of the author, who was attached to the British embassy in Persia, and in seeing whom Sir Robert anticipated much pleasure. For the benefit of his health, he had removed to the village of Kund, a salubrious spot, delightfully situated on the side of the mountains north of Taheran, and thither the author went with Dr. de la Fosse to pay him a visit.

The night was beautiful; à bright moon, through as clear a sky, cheering us on our way. It was past midnight before we reached the quarters of poor Campbell. He was asleep when we arrived, and being careful not to have him disturbed, we did not see him ́till five o'clock the next morning. When I entered his melancholy chamber, and again took my friend by the hand, I was shocked to find him far more reduced than even the messenger had described. His pleasure was great at the sight of us, and we did our best to enliven him with hopes of recovery. But he shook his head, though with a kind smile, that showed his resignation and feeling of our motive in thus seeking to cheer him. Our visit was short, but yet as long as his weak state could bear; and we started early that Dr. de la Fosse might make his report of our friend to the prince before he should be encumbered by the ceremonies of his approach to Teheran.'-p. 305.

This unfortunate gentleman soon after died, and Sir Robert indulges in lamentations over his fate, highly creditable to his feelings; though we cannot well understand him, when he observes, that during the spring at Taheran, he often thought of his

poor

poor friend, and wished that he could have borne the last linger ing severities of departing winter a little longer, to have inhaled new life in the balmy relenting of nature: for, says he, the thermometer of Reaumur, during the months of April and May, never mounts to more than 70 or 80 in the shade;' a degree of heat little short of boiling water!-so dangerous is it for the unlearned to meddle even with the most trifling matters of science.

Between Taheran and Ispahan he crossed one of those immense deserts of salt which abound in Persia. That which stretches from the banks of the Heirmund river in Seistan to the range of hills which divide that province from Lower Mekran, is 400 miles long and 200 miles broad; another, as large, is met with to the north, reaching from Koom and Kashan to the provinces of Mazanderan and Khorassan. This extensive waste encircles the sea of Zereh, and in its dry parts presents to the eye either a crusted coat of brittle earth, or a succession of sand hills which assume the appearance of waves, formed of impalpable red particles that are driven about by the violent north-west winds which prevail in summer. The countries situated in the vicinity of these dreadful wilds are subject to extreme heat, the thermometer of Fahrenheit sometimes standing at 125° in a tent. Of Persia generally, it may be said that its chief features are numerous chains of mountains and large tracts of desert, amidst which are interspersed beautiful vallies and rich pasture lands. Except in the province of Mazanderan, where extensive forests are found, the mountains are generally bare, or thinly covered with underwood.

The remainder of the volume is occupied by a description of the traveller's arrival at Ispahan, and of the ruins of Persepolis. On the former subject, we find nothing worthy of notice; on the latter he has bestowed great pains, and indeed it forms by far the most valuable and interesting portion of his work.

In the plain of Merdasht, which is watered on the south-west by the river Bend-emir, the ancient Araxes, stands the Throne of Jemsheed,' as the natives call these immense ruins, now generally believed to have belonged to the palace of Darius, to which the Macedonian madman' set fire in a fit of drunken reyelry, and which was beyond doubt one of the most magnificent structures of the ancient world. If there is nothing in the architecture of the buildings, or in the sculptures and reliefs on the rocks, that can be compared with the exquisite specimens of Grecian art, still it is impossible to behold the remains of Persepolis without emotions of rapture and surprize. The wealth of an unbounded empire was exhausted in their construction; they were adorned with every ornament that the art of the old world could supply, and their history yet lives on the imperishable mate

rials of which they were built. The palace, the face of the mountain at the foot of which it is situated, and many of the rocks in its vicinity, are ornamented with a profusion of sculpture; and afford ample evidence, as Sir John Malcolm observes, that the Persians were in the habit of describing by the graving tool both their religious ceremonies and the principal events of their history. The impression made on Sir Robert Porter by the first sight of these celebrated monuments was that, both en masse and in detail, they bore a strong resemblance to the architectural taste of Egypt. The artificial plane which supports the ruins of this immense citadel, as he calls it, is of a very irregular shape; but nothing can transcend the strength and beauty of its construction. Its steep faces are formed of dark grey marble, cut into gigantic blocks, exquisitely polished, and, without the aid of mortar, fitted to each other with such admirable precision, that when first completed, the platform must have appeared as part of the solid mountain itself, levelled to become a foundation for a structure, many of whose proud columns still remain erect. A flight of steps, situated in its western face, leads to the summit of the platform, and is so stupendous, and on a scale of such astonishing magnificence, as fully to prepare the mind for the corresponding forms of vastness and grandeur to be met with above.

On reaching the platform, the first objects that strike the eye are the lofty sides of an enormous portal, the interior faces of whose walls are sculptured into the forms of two colossal quadrupeds, that on a nearer approach were found to represent bulls. The loss of the heads deprived the traveller of the means of knowing whether they had one or two horns; but he thinks, from what he has seen in other symbolical animals of the same kind in Persia, that they were represented with only one. Around the necks of these bucolic sentinels (as Sir Robert classically calls them) are broad collars of roses, executed with the most critical nicety; and in the very spirited delineations which he gives of them, he has been elaborate, even to a hair, in copying the distinguishing marks of that proud epoch of Persian sculpture. At the distance of twenty-four feet, in a direct line from the portal, once stood four magnificent columns; they were all erect in the time of Chardin, but two only now remain. At an equal distance is another portal, the inner sides of which are also sculptured, but the animals represented are of very extraordinary formation, of gigantic proportions, and monstrous appearance. They have the bodies and legs of bulls, (with enormous wings,) and the faces of men. The blind zeal of the Moslems has miserably mutilated the features, yet enough remains to exhibit a severe and majestic expression of countenance, to which a long and carefully curled beard does

not