Reference has already incidentally been made to a few of the caravan routes of very ancient times: these and other more important routes will now and hereafter be considered somewhat more in detail, as, antecedently to the invention of boats, there must have existed some interchange of commodities between different nations and tribes on land, by the agencies of different kinds of beasts of burthen; and, here, the records of Holy Writ are, as in so many other cases, the first available; the earliest caravan noticed in history being that mentioned in the 37th chapter of the book of Genesis, v. 25: “behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt;” and again, v. 28: “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” Here there is a clearly defined trade at a very remote period of authentic history, and one which there is no reason to suppose was even then new or unusual. Moreover, a somewhat subsequent statement, “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn” (Gen. xli. 57), proves that Egypt was already what it remained for many centuries, the granary of adjacent, and even of distant nations; while some of the goods she received from Palestine in exchange were in great demand for the embalmment of the Egyptian dead. This the first regular trade appears to have been conducted wholly by camels, the “ships of the desert:” an animal marvellously adapted by Providence for the toil it has to undergo in traversing for many continuous days almost waterless deserts. It is worthy of note, too, that in the earliest notice we have of any trade at all, we find slave-dealing in full operation; and, supposing for a moment the Biblical date B.C. 1862 to be correct, it is an interesting though accidental coincidence, that in the year 1862 _after_ Christ, the same inhuman commerce was finally put a stop to in the United States by the direct action of its government.