In order to convey some idea of another department of nautical architecture among the ancients, in which there was probably a greater display of fancy than of science, we shall here introduce the description of a pleasure-barge in which Ptolemy Philopater and the ladies of his court used to sail upon the Nile.[1687] Among the caliphs and sultans of the East we find traces of a similar taste for gorgeous and magnificent barks; but neither in history nor fiction do we remember to have met any account of a vessel so curiously constructed, or so superbly and sumptuously adorned. It was, in the first place, half a furlong in length, flat-bottomed, and rising high above the water on account of the swell, with projecting keel, and prow of most graceful curvature,—or, I should rather, perhaps, say, prows, for it appeared double in front, as though a pair of galleys had been lashed together. Along the sides and stern ran two galleries, the one above the other, where the persons on board might stroll and take exercise as the barge was wafted along by the wind. Of these the lower one resembled an open peristyle, the upper a close arcade furnished at intervals with windows looking out upon the river. ----- Footnote 1687: The great attention paid to navigation by the Egyptians, under the government of the Ptolemies, may be inferred from the fact, that they possessed at one time upwards of four thousand ships of all sizes. Athen. v. 36. ----- Considering the whole barge as one great building, the architect placed the extreme hall encircled by a single row of columns at the extremity of the stern, where it was, doubtless, approached from the upper gallery. Having traversed this, you next beheld a propylæon erected with the most precious wood and ivory. This led into a proscenion roofed over, in the vicinity of which lay a variety of chambers. Of these the most remarkable was a vast peripheral hall fitted up with twenty couches. This apartment was wainscotted with cedar and Milesian cypress; the doors, twenty in number, were formed of panels of citron wood richly inlaid with ivory. The hinges, the nails, the knockers, and door-handles, were of copper, gilt. The shafts of the columns were cypress wood, and the Corinthian capitals of gold and ivory were surmounted by an architrave richly overlaid with gold. Above this again was a broad frieze adorned with numerous figures of animals roughly sculptured in ivory, but remarkable for the costliness of the materials. The ceiling was of cedar wood elaborately carved and covered with a blaze of gilding. Close at hand were the apartments of the women, in the structure and ornaments of which equal magnificence was displayed. In another part of the bark was a chapel of Aphroditè surmounted by a dome. It contained a statue of the goddess in Parian marble. This sacred edifice was surrounded by other suites of apartments among which was a symposion adorned with pillars of Indian marble. Towards the prow was a