Along the coast, and near the water, are many sand-hills. They almost line the coast--are of various shapes and sizes. Most of them are composed of white, fine sand, and are utterly destitute of vegetation. In a few places I could see some small bushes about the base of some of them; and through the openings between the sand-hills we could see groves of palms in the interior. In a few places we saw villages; for the most part they appeared small. Some of them had minarets, which indicated Moslem places of worship; and in several places we saw the top of minarets where we could see neither the village nor the mosque to which they belonged. The minaret, I may here remark, is to the mosques what a steeple is to the church. Instead of a bell to call to worship, the moolah (the Mohammedan priest) mounts the minaret, proclaims the hour, and calls his people to prayer. The minaret rises higher above the mosque than the steeple usually does above the church. It is always white, and has a stairway up in the inside, by which the moolah ascends to the place from which he proclaims the hour and its accompanying duty. Near the top is a door through which he comes out. A little platform runs all round the minaret, fenced in with a low railing. There is a cover over the top, which protects them in time of rain. If I may compare a small thing with a great, I would say that a minaret is much like a tall candlestick, with a long spermaceti candle in it, and an extinguisher on the top of the candle. They have a very pretty and tasteful appearance. The whole coast from east of Damietta to the west of Rosetta, bends like a bow, the convex part being next the Mediterranean. It is caused, no doubt, in part at least, by the immense deposits which the Nile makes of the mud, with which its waters are loaded. There are, however, some very deep bays on the coast, as the bay of Aboukir. The coast about Rosetta did not differ much from that about Damietta. The mouth of the river is obstructed with bars, which is much in the way of its commerce. The town lies back, so that we had not a good view of it, at the distance at which we passed. There were once, I am told, many good houses here; the trade was much concentrated here; but since the canal has been made from Atpi to Alexandria, the trade has taken that direction, and Alexandria has been built up at the expense of Rosetta. All along this coast the current seemed to set eastward. We reached Alexandria on the first of June. It stands on a point of land that projects considerably into the sea, and has a part that turns west like the upper part of a capital T. On this west point stands a palace of the pasha, to which he resorts in summer. There are two harbours, one on the east and the other on the west side of the town; and in each harbour is a Lazaret.