ferent in their nature. In the Northern Seas, they suffered from that dreadful extremity of cold to which high latitudes are exposed; in Africa, from the scorching heat and pestilential vapours peculiar to a tropical climate: there, they encountered the fury of oceans and tempests; here, the privations and fatigues which oppress the traveller in parched and boundless deserts. In the former they had less to endure from that almost total absence of human life which renders the Arctic zone so dreary, than they had to experience in the latter from the fierce, contemptuous, and persecuting character of the people who occupy the interior parts of the Libyan continent. In a word, while exploring these remote regions, they braved almost every species of danger, and passed through every variety of suffering, by which the strength and fortitude of man can be tried.
The Narrative of these successive Travels and Expeditions has been contributed by Mr. Hugh Murray.
The Geological Illustrations have been furnished by the justly celebrated Professor Jameson; and for the interesting and very ample account of its Natural History the reader is indebted to Mr. James Wilson, author of "Illustrations of Zoology," and the principal contributor in that branch of science to the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
The present volume, having for its main object the History of Discovery and Adventure, does not include the countries on the Mediterranean coast, which from the earliest ages have been well known to the nations of Europe.-Egypt, again, from its high antiquity, its stupendous monuments, and the memorable revolutions through which it has passed, presented matter at once too interesting and ample to be comprehended within such narrow limits. The history of that kingdom, therefore, has been reserved for a separate volume, which will contain also an account of Nubia and Abyssinia.
EDINBURGH, 20th November, 1830.