perhaps, he did make enquiries ; but of some patriotic §iwahari, who
thought proper to exaggerate the richness and extent of his petty
commonwealth, and confirm his hyperbole, by pointing to the lofty
boundary in view : or, perhaps, from not sufficiently understanding
the dialect of Slwah, .('as the traveller himself allows,) he may have
confounded the ideas of country occupied, and of territory claimed.
Be these surmises and explanations founded or not, our journalist s
representation of the extent of the Oasis of Siwah, is not only at
variance with every other account, but with the internal evidence
to be extracted from his own account, and must be rejected as
erroneous.
Page 23, of the Journal, to which this note refers, a further subject
of inquiry and explanation .occurs, where Mr. Horneman, describing
the ruins of an ancient edifice in the vicinity of Siwah, gives,
us dimensions and proportions, in every respect differing from those
before stated by Mr. Brown, in description of the same building.
T h e length in feet. 1 T h e width. ’ Thfcheight. Si
By Mr. Brown, - 32 J .5
By Mr. Horneman, 30 to 36 bptt 24 27
Mr. Horneman informs us, that he was successively interrupted
on entrance into the area of these ruins, and was altogether prevented
by the jealousy of .the natives, from pursuing any plan of
accurate examination or admeasurement. The dimensions which
he gives us, are therefore to be taken as the result of computation
on mere view; and from these and other circumstances, it is further
to be presumed, that such computation by view, was made frnn.
without; whilst Mr. Brown expressly tells us, that he took his
measurements in the clear, or inside of the building.
In this case, a deduction equal to the thickness of the walls, is to
be made from the length and the breadth of the building, as described
by Mr. Horneman.
The thickness of the end walls may be supposed to be much less
than that of the side walls, which being constructed to support the
vast and ponderous blocks o f stone which formed the roof, must
have been built with a proportionate strength and solidity, not necessary,
and probably therefore not used, at the entrance or end of
the building. Mr. Horneman, indeed, when stating the.thickness of
the walls to be six feet, makes no such discrimination; but it may
be fairly presumed, that adverting particularly (as he does,) to the
massive roof, he meant to note exclusively, the strength of that part
of the fabric by which it was supported.
Under such probable conjecture, the length and breadth of the
building given by Mr. Brown from the inside, and by Mr. Horneman
from the outside, may so far agree, as fully to exculpate our Journalist
from any charge of inattention in his survey, or inaccuracy
in his representations ; making those allowances which his situation
and circumstances, and (above all,) his own declarations of want
of precision, fully intitle him to.
The comparative height of the building is a part of the subject,
which suggests matter of new and interesting investigation.
Page 23, Mr. Horneman informs us, “ that the northern part of
the building is erected on a native calcareous rock, rising about eight
feet above the level of the area, within a circumvallation,” which he
particularly and exclusively describes, and which will be a subject
of further dissertation. He then mentions, “ that two vast stones of
M