T RAV

220 TRAV.ELS INAFRIC'.&.deed was, that the venom the pOOl' Bassa dreaded was aU in the rcrya~countenance, the frowns of whicn he telt he nad too much reason to:>apprehend. He therefere chose to put forward his reconnoissances, andtater le terrain somewhat, before he trusted his own" footing,where thereis no retrogpacl~;~.ti()n.. Eefofe he ventured his head in the lion's mouth,.he wished tg ascertain that the royal animal did not; wag his tail.Quitting howevep such speculative matter of unimportant .L8SUe, thecertain result gf tlle gccurrence was, in the fil!st instance,. a day's unex~pected haIt upon the road, and leisure to admireanàcontemplate OUDmajestic neighbour-Atlas. Here it is distant sixty, oraccQl'ding tasorne reekonings erghtymiles; but the day's jgurney,. of which they;.count it two, is sornewhat indefinite.. Remotehowever it certainly is,;but the vastness of the elevatign above the strata of gUI' atmosphere"oivapour or clouds, and the relieftaken, by sneh a vast mas& of whiteness.as its snowy range presents, make it appear to almost impend c01Jnter-:­acting above the effect of mirage, which ,r:nles. below the nebulouS!region. In faet, its base is out of human ken here, even weFe. the aiDunohscured hy that purple gloom whieh pervades beneath. A gréatdeal of optical deception may be expected in an abject so new to thesenses, and 80 much heyoud the conceptigns of' the imagination. Theformer inconvenience may he in part guarded against. An interestnaturally occurs ta assign to this llwuntain, 50 much under-rated inmodern days, its true place in th~ scale of those great features of theearth, in the modification of which it constitutes so important a part.Jtlirage, the modern term, is a good suhstitute to adopt in the place ofthat lIwre complicated in point of idea-refraction. It means, however,the same thing :-it is the effect for the cause; the curvature of the raysof light, to us, on their cntering a dense from a ra:refied mediu,tn,sudl_as Atlas is involved in below and .above. This effect therefore to the.