“’Instead of a land, and river, and desert transit, with all the obstructions and inconveniences of track-boats, native steamers, donkey-chairs, and vans, shipping and unshipping, there will be no land transit, and the whole passage may be made by sea from London to Bombay without stoppage.  Instead of four days being consumed in the Egyptian transit, five hours will only be requisite.  Moreover, the 2_l_. 12s. expense caused by the present transit in Egypt, and charged to each person, will in future be saved by every passenger.’”

MR. BARRAUD.  “I propose a vote of thanks to Emma for introducing the subject, as by so doing we have gained a great deal of information.”

MR. WILTON.  “There you see, Emma, you are not laughed at, but we all thank you, for revealing your thoughts.  Now to the Persian Gulf, if you have any particulars.”

EMMA.  “The Persian Gulf is another noted inland sea, about half the length of the Red Sea, and is the grand receptacle of those celebrated rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris.  The small bays within this gulf are Katiff Bay, Assilla Bay, Erzoog Bay.  There are various islands and large pearl banks here; and on the Euphrates, not many miles from these shores, stands Chaldaea.  The inhabitants are the Beni Khaled Arabs, descendants of the founders of the ’Great Babylon.’”

GEORGE.  “Oh, papa, I have a discovery:  here is an island nobody has noticed—­its name is Dahalac.”

MRS. WILTON.  “That was certainly an omission, for Dahalac is a large island, sixty miles in circumference.  It contains goats which have long silky hair, and furnishes gum-lac, the produce of a particular kind of shrub.  To this island vessels repair for fresh water, which, however, is very bad, being kept in 370 dirty cisterns!”

MR. BARRAUD.  “This district is especially interesting to Christians, for here are situated the mounts celebrated in Scripture.  In the centre of Armenia you may observe Mount Ararat, a detached elevation with two summits; the highest covered with perpetual snow.  On this mountain rested the Ark, when God sent his vengeance over all the earth, and destroyed every living thing.  Mount Lebanon is in Syria; and not far distant stands Mount Sinai, an enormous mass of granite rocks, with a Greek convent at its base, called the convent of St. Catharine:  here was the law delivered to Moses, inscribed on two tables of stone by the Most High God.”

MR. WILTON.  “The whole coast of Oman, in South Arabia, which on the north is washed by the waters of the Persian Gulf, and on the south by the Sea of Oman, abounds with fish; and, as the natives have but few canoes, they generally substitute a single inflated skin, or sometimes two, across which they place a flat board.  On this contrivance the fisherman seats himself, and either casts his small hand-net, or plays his hook and line.  Some capital sport must arise occasionally, when the sharks, which are