ABSTRACT
The author's first sight of Africa was on a somewhat lurid November evening, when the descending sun marked out by its red light a group of purple rocks to the westward, which had not been visible till then, and which presently became again invisible when the sun had gone down behind them, and the glow of the sky had melted away. A Lybian headland was looming to the south-east. The gardens of Alexandria looked rude to our European eyes; but we saw few so good afterwards. In the damp plots grew herbs, and especially a kind of mallow, much in use for soups: and cabbages, put in among African fruits. A strip of vegetation, some marsh, some field, and some grove, - looked well near the lake; and so did a little settlement on the canal, and a latteen sail, gliding among the trees.
