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Hieroglyphical Fragments.

WHATEVER may be done by the liberality of the French government hereafter, in promoting the investigation of Egyptian Antiquities, the spirit of private individuals among our countrymen has, of late, been so active as to promise to exhaust all the accessible materials before our rivals commence their operations. Mr. BURTON's drawings of the Chamber of Kings, at Thebes, have already been lithographized; though his fellow labourer, Mr. WILKINSON, has been less fortunate in sending home his manuscript on the same subject, which has been lost on its way. Mr. WILKINSON is, however, still employed, with unremitting zeal, in increasing the bulk of his collections; and his drawings appear to be as accurately copied, as they are beautifully executed; and Major FELIX has even lithographized, at Cairo, some very interesting plates of names, arranged in chronological order.

Among some drawings lately received from Mr. Wilkinson by his friends in England there are two of particular interest. The one is a ceiling from the Memnonium at Thebes; the other a tablet from a tomb at Beni Hassan.

The first of these contain twelve months in order; they are distinguished by three different characters, accompanied by numerals from one to four, nearly in the same way as the months communicated by Mr. CHAMPOLLION to Dr. YOUNG for his Hieroglyphics. This mode of expressing the months appears to be sufficiently observable in the enchorial as well as in the sacred characters: and Mr. Champollion is evidently acquainted with their signification, though the characters cannot possibly have any relation to the sounds of the Egyptian words by which the months are denoted.

There is, however, an extraordinary difficulty in the reading of a passage in the Pillar of Rosetta, in which the name of the sixth month Mechir occurs, though it is denoted by the character which in this series answers to Paophi the second month. The first tetrad, beginning at the middle of the ceiling, is marked by the character of a garden or a corn field; and this character is also in the Thoth of the triple inscription, repeated, as denoting,

in all probability, the Thoth of each year: the second tetrad has an open square and an oval; and the third a long parallelogram, which occurs, as it ought to do, in the Mesore of the pillar. But Mechir has the garden instead of the open square and oval; yet it is perfectly well determined, and liable to no doubt or ambiguity whatever from the context: so that whether it was. an error of the engraver, or a different dialect of the language, must remain for the present doubtful.

The tablet from the tomb at Beni Hassan is also singular for the sublime nature of the subject to which it relates, and as a genuine specimen of the high importance which ought to be attached to the interpretation of all the mysteries of Egypt. It is no less than a child's spelling book, in the Greek character however: had it happily been in the Egyptian character. it would have been seriously invaluable. It begins with the alphabet from A to ; then from 2 to A; then A, N, B, ¥, in direct and inverse order alternately, that the child's memory might not assist his perception too much: then we have BA, BE, BH, BI, BO, BY, BN; гA,,and so forth to ; then BAB, BEB, BHB, and the rest of the syllables similarly formed, as far as AA; with which the child's first lesson appears to have ended. This at least we may probably infer, that the tenant of the tomb was probably a schoolmaster or schoolmistress at any rate that he had learned to read and write, and that his survivors were proud of his qualifications.

Park Square, March 14.

On the Climate of the Canary Islands.

THE following remarks on the climate of the Canary Islands are an epitome of the portion, allotted to that subject, in the very valuable treatise of M. von Buch, entitled, "Physicalische Beschreibung der Canarischen Inseln."

1. Temperature of the Atmosphere.-It was highly to be desired that a correct mean temperature, at the level of the sea, should be obtained in some latitude, which might connect the valuable and exact determinations made by Humboldt within the tropics, with the many careful registers which are

may,

kept north of the forty-fifth parallel. The observations of Heberden, at Madeira, in 1750, which were the only ones existing in the intermediate parallels alluded to, could not be regarded as sufficiently satisfactory for this purpose. The desideratum has been at length supplied by a most careful register kept at Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, with good English instruments, in an open gallery in the shade, from May 1808, to August 1810, by Don Francisco Escolar. The temperature of each day is derived from the mean of two observations, one made at sunrise, and the other at noon, or a little later. It might appear, at first view, that, whilst the observation at sunrise without hesitation, be admitted to have shown the minimum,that at noon, or a little later, might not justly represent the maximum,—and, consequently, that the mean derived from them would give a temperature somewhat too low; and this view might receive confirmation, on observing that the average temperature of the noon register does not exceed that of sunrise by more than 10.16 R. or 2°.6 Fahr. But experience has shown that, in the islands of warm climates, the maximum of heat very rarely, indeed, happens so late in the day as halfpast one: that it more frequently occurs a little after eleven, but most frequently about noon. The increase of heat which takes place elsewhere after the sun has reached the meridian, is, in such localities, counteracted by the sea breeze, which, springing up when the sun has reached a considerable altitude, increases in strength, in proportion to the effect produced by the sun's increasing heat upon the land. And in respect to any inference which might be drawn from there being so small difference between sunrise and noon in Escolar's register, the observations of Heberden, which contain the highest and lowest temperatures experienced in every month in Madeira, show that, in no single instance, the range of the thermometer for the space of a whole month exceeds in that island 2°.91 R., or 6°.5 Fahr.

From these considerations M. von Buch concludes that Don Francisco Escolar's observations may be regarded as affording a fair representation of the mean temperature at Santa Cruz. The abstract of the register gives the following mean temperatures for each month in the year :

The progression of the temperature in the different months follows the law common to places without the tropics; the greatest heat and the greatest cold are in the months following the solstices. The mean temperature of the coldest month, January, is the same as the mean temperature of the whole year in southern Italy.

Rains. By the character of the rains, the climate of the Canary Islands is also assimilated to the temperate zone, rather than to the zone of the tropics; there are no tropical rains, and the rains which take place occur at that season when the temperature differs most from that of the equator. Their cause is the same as elsewhere beyond the tropics; the cooling of the upper current of the atmosphere, in its passage from the equator, and the deposit of the great quantity of vapour with which it is charged. In consequence of the greater warmth of the climate of the Canary Islands, this deposit does not take place there so soon in the autumn, or continue so late in the spring, as in Italy, or in countries still further to the north. It scarcely ever rains on the sea coast earlier than November, or later than the end of March.

Winds. During the summer months, the climate of the Canaries is assimilated by the winds to the region of the tropics. From April to October, the N.E. trade-wind prevails uninterruptedly. During the remaining months it partakes of the

character of the zone without the tropics, by the general prevalence of south-westerly winds.

These islands are just within that distance from the continent of Africa, which enables them to present highly interesting examples of the gradation in which the true direction of the trade-wind (that is to say, the direction in which it ought to blow, from the general causes which occasion it) is deflected from the influence, and in proportion to the vicinity of a great continent. Within sight of the coast of Africa the wind is found N. by E.; at Lancerote and Fuertaventura, N.N.E.; at Canary, N.E.; at Teneriffe, N. E. by E.; and the influence of the continent ceases to be perceptible at Palma. At all seasons of the year, even when the N.E. Trade is strongest in the lower regions of the atmosphere, the S.W. current, or the general flow of the atmosphere in the upper regions from the equator towards the pole, is experienced by ascending the high land of Teneriffe, and of other islands in the group. Evidence is thus afforded of the steady prevalence of that upper current, the cause of which has been so satisfactorily explained by Mr. Daniell, and of which the existence had been also manifested by the phenomena of the fall to windward of the ashes of the volcano of St. Vincent's, quoted by M. von Buch, from Mr. Daniell's Essays. In proportion as the sun advances to the southward of the line in autumn, the limit of the trade-wind towards the north progressively recedes, following the sun. Thus, the N.E. trade, which, in the height of summer, reaches even the coast of Portugal, fails there, while it yet prevails at Madeira; and, in like manner, fails at Madeira, while it still blows at the Canaries. Several very remarkable phenomena observed at the Canary Islands, appear to justify Mr. Von Buch's opinion that the N. E. trade-wind does not flow parallel to the surface of the earth, but that it has a gradual ascent in its progress southwards. It seems difficult otherwise to explain the great extent of lee occasioned by the several islands, which has been carefully and accurately examined at each. At Canary the lee is from twenty to twenty-five sea miles; at Teneriffe, fifteen; at Gomera, ten; and at Palma, thirty sea miles. The distance to which the lee extends is well defined by the breaking of the sea upon the smooth water, with so