expence, and faid to have coft the lives of an hundred and - twenty thousand perfons. In fhort, it was a communication - between the Nile and the Red Sea.

Our author next treats of the temple of Onias, called Heliopolis, which, he fays, was a Mediterranean city, contrary to what many learned men have afferted. We are fincerely forry our limits will not permit us to quote this gentleman's very ingenious conjectures on this fubject, many of which are highly cutious, and interesting to literature, especially his strictures upon Jofephus the Jewish hiftorian, with regard to Onias the builder of the Jewish temple in Egypt. All his fpeculations on this head tend to prove, there were no provinces of Lower Egypt to the east of the Nile (meaning, we fuppofe, the Pelufiac branch of it). At laft, he comes to the point in queftion, which is, that the Arabian provinces, mentioned by ancient writers as belonging to Egypt, were fo called from the Arabian Shepherds, who had formerly fettled in those parts, and held them for many years. The Arabian nomes (continues he) are nothing more than the land of Gofhen, called by the Seventy Τεσσερ της Αραβίας. We are afterwards entertained with a curious quotation from Manetho, concerning the origin of thofe fhepherds and their kings, who rendered all the Upper and ́ Lower Egypt tributary, and the whole body of whose fabjects were called the Royal Shepherds. Mr. Bryant then treats of the evidences ftill remaining to illuftrate thofe early occurrences, `and proves, that the Arabian shepherds were distinct from the Ifraelites, and prior to them. He gives us the state of Egypt at the departure of the Arabian fhepherds, and some farther account of that people, who had firft migrated from Babylonia. They were in poffeffion of Egypt for five hundred years. After their expulfion from thence, they were afraid to march towards Affyria; and there is great reason to think that they took up their refidence among the Amalekites, and the fons of Caphtor in Philiftine, and among the nations upon the Red Sea, from whence they extended themselves to the remoter parts of Arabia. These fhepherds, we perceive, were called Cufeans, and Mr. Bryant has given us an account of fome attempts they made upon Egypt after they had left it; with a differtation upon the Edomites and Philiftines, and a farther account of the places to which the fhepherds retreated. This publication, which is illuftrated by fome very useful maps, is clofed with additional remarks concerning the names of perfons, places, and other circumftances, that tend to explain or confirm the preceding part of his work..

Upon the whole, this writer is a complete mafter of the abftrufe fubjects he has undertaken to difcufs. He is rational in

his criticisms, accurate in his obfervations, precise in his reafoni ing, and fair in his conclufions. We therefore heartily congratulate the public of England, that in this feeble state of learning, a writer has appeared whofe performance must give foreigners the highest idea of English erudition, and prove that the scholars of this kingdom are no more asleep than her foldiers were at the commencement of the late war, and that, when roused, they can execute wonders,

We cannot conclude this article without returning, in the name of literature, our thanks to the most noble perfonage, whose benevolence and favour gave the author the ease and retirement which enabled him to execute this work. May his generofity be daily imitated! and may his example be daily productive of the like publications!

IV. Philofophical Transactions, giving fome Account of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious, in many confiderable Parts of the World. Vol. LVI. For the Year 1766. 4to. Pr. 10s. Davis and Reymers.

HE manner in which we reviewed the laft volume of these

Trandations, having given general fatisfaction to our

readers, we shall adopt the fame method in criticising the prefent publication.

Article I. Obfervations of the eclipse of the fun on the 16th of August, 1765, made at Colombes, near Paris, at the obfervatory of the marquis of Courtenvaux. By M. Meffier, aftronomer, Fellow of the Royal Society in London, and Member of the Society of Sciences in Holland; tranflated from the French by Matthew Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S.'

This article contains an account of the beginning, duration, and magnitude of the eclipse.

Art. II. Remarks on the Palmyrene inscription at Teive. In a letter to the rev. Thomas Birch, D. D. fecretary to the Royal Society, from the rev. John Swinton, B. D. F. R. S. Member of the Academy Degli Apatisti at Florence, and of the Etrufcan Academy of Cortona in Tuscany.'

This infcription is copied from the stone, now in the possesfion of the earl of Besborough, and is different from that which had been inaccurately taken by Sig. Pietro della Valle, and published in the Philofophical Tranfaction. The infcription is grav'd both in Hebrew and Greek characters, and, translated into Latin, is

Jovi, fulminatori, in æternum fit reverentia
mentum et lectum ei dedicavit Agathengelus.'

Opcri

"To Jupiter, the thunderer, for ever be reverence. Agathangelus dedicated to him this covered bed.'

Mr. Swinton has added critical remarks in explanation of the words of the Hebrew infcription; and repeats, from the authority of these two infcriptions, what he had formerly evinced, namely, that Baal, the great Divinity of Syria and Phoenicia, anfwered to the ZETE of the Greeks, and the Jupiter of the Latins.

Art. III. A letter to William Heberden, M. D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and of the Royal Society, from Daniel Peter Layard, M. D. &c. giving an account of the Somerfham water, in the county of Huntingdon ; and transmitting a letter from Michael Morris, M. D. &c. to Dr. Layard, on the same subject.'

It appears from a variety of experiments mentioned in these letters, that the Somerfham is a chalybeate water, ftrongly impregnated with the vitriol of iron and allum, and containing fome calcareous earth, felenites, and falt. The Somerfham water, drank at the spring, is cool, pungent, and of an auftere, sharp, aftringent, ferrugineous, tafte, fomewhat inky, but not in the leaft difagreeable; when carried to any distance, it lofes a little of its pungency, by its fuffering a decompofition; but carefully bottled under water, and then well corked, covering, afterwards, the corks closely with rofin and wax, the water preferves its brifknefs and volatility a long while; and provided the bottle be kept corked, though half the water may have been drawn out, yet, after keeping it months, nay, many years, it will still preserve its irony principle, fo as to turn, with galls, purple, or dark blue.

Art. IV. Account of an inedited coin of the empress Crifpina. By the Rev. John Swinton, B. D. F. R. S.'

This medal is nearly of the size of the middle Roman brafs, and tolerably well preferved: but the workmanship is fomewhat rude, and favours fufficiently both of the age and the remote province in which it firft appeared. On one fide is exhibited the head of Crifpina, wife of the emperor Commodus, attended by the Greek legend KPICHEINA CEBACTH, Crifpina Augusta; and on the reverie, two human figures, one fitting in a chair, with a lance in the left hand, and the other standing at its fide, prefent themselves to our view, They are both furrounded by the infcription ΔΑΡΔΑΝΟΣΣΗΝΩΝ, Dardanoffenorum, or Dardanoffenfium; which evidently points at the inhabitants of fome ancient town As there is no mention in any ancient writer of fuch a town as Dardanoffa, it is difficult to determine precifely where it was fituated: but there is much reason to imagine, that it is the fame with what the VOL. XXIV. Auguft, 1767. tranfI

tranfcribers of Ptolemy have converted into Daraniffa. This coin, therefore, was ftruck at Dardanoffa, or Daranifla, which seems to have been a town fituated in Sophene, a province of the Greater Armenia, in the reign of the emperor Commodus, where the Roman power, at that time, prevailed. And this is confonant to the faith of hiftory: for we find in Dio, Lucian, and Jamblichus, that the conqueft of Armenia was effected, af ter the reduction of Artaxata, by Statius Prifcus, not many years before Commodus afcended the imperial throne.

Art. V. Obfervations of the eclipfe of the fun, of Auguft 16, 1765, made at Leyden, by profeffor Lulofs, F. R. S. to Charles Morton, M. D. Sec. R. S.'

Art. VI. A letter from James Parfons, M. D. F. R. S. to the earl of Morton, prefident of the Royal Society; on the double horns of the Rhinoceros.'

What renders this fubject the more interefting is, that by knowing there is a species of this animal in Africa, having always a double horn upon the nose, Martial's reading is supported against the criticifin of Bochart, who changed the true text of that poet, in an epigram upon the strength of this animal. For, fpeaking of an exhibition of wild beasts, which had been given by Domitian, the poet fays, the Rhinoceros toffed up a heavy bear with his double horn:

Namque gravem gemino cornu fic extulit urfum.'

But as Bochart knew nothing of a double horn, he changed this line both in reading and sense, thus:

Namque gravi geminum cornu fic extulit eurum ;'

as if two wild bulls were toffed up into the air by the strong horn of the Rhinoceros.

Art. VII. Extract from two letters, from the Rev. Mr. W. Borlafe, of Ludgvan, in Cornwall, F. R. S. to Emanuel Mendes da Cofta, Librarian to the Royal Society.

These letters give an account of the discovery of native tin, the existence of which mineral has been denied by all ancient and modern writers. But to afcertain the reality of the metal, Mr. Mendes da Cofta has made the following experiments with it, by which it is fully confirmed to be pure tin.

1. It is perfectly ductile and malleable; and, bent between the teeth, gives the fame crackling noife as tin always does.

2. In an open fire it melts eafily, calcines on the furface, and smokes fomewhat; forced in a stronger fire, with borax, it detonates with small phorphorefcent fparks, which is a property of pure tin.

3. It

3. It is only corroded to a white calx in spirit of nitre, and oil of tartar per deliquium being added to the folution, not any thing was precipitated.

Art. VIII. A letter from Edward Wortley Montagu, Efq; F. R. S. to William Watson, M. D. F. R. S. containing an account of his journey from Cairo, in Egypt, to the Written Mountains, in the defart of Sinaï.'

Were it poffible, at this great distance of time, to elucidate the memorials of Ifraelitifh antiquity, we might expect to have our curiofity fully gratified by the obfervations of this ingenious and learned gentleman in the course of his progrefs. But many objects must be obliterated in such a vast fuccellion of ages; and many apparent veftiges of diftant transactions have, perhaps, been counterfeited, to fupply the place of original curiofities, in a country fo much reforted to, through veneration for the antiquities of facred writ.

Concerning the characters on the Written Mountains, as they are called, the author is of opinion, that they are not the work of the Ifraelites; because they are interfperfed with figures of men and beafts: for he thinks that Mofes would not have permitted them to engrave images fo immediately after he had received the second commandment. Had they been written by the Mahometans, he thinks it probable, that they would have had some resemblance to fome forts of the Cuphic characters, which were those used in the Arabic language, before the introduction of the present Arabic letters. He is inclined to imagine they are Hebrew characters, ufed by the Jews about the beginning of the Chriftian æra: though he confeffes it seems much easier to fay what these inscriptions are not, than what they really are.

Art. IX. A discovery, with observations, of two new co. mets in the Marine Obfervatory at Paris, by M. Meflier, F. R. S. &c. tranflated from the French, by M. Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S.'

From the obfervations on the comet, March 8th, 1766, Mr. Pingré has computed the elements of its orbit, as follows:

The comet paffed its perihelion the 17th of February, at

8 50, mean time, at the meridian of Paris.

The motion of the comet was retrograde.

From the obfervations on the comet of the 8th of April, 1766, Mr. Pingré has calculated the elements of it thus; but