computed at about seven-and-twenty leagues, and the passage over is pleasant and safe. It is often performed in seven or eight hours; but that, of course, depends upon the favourableness or otherwise, of the wind and tide. The packets employed in keeping open the intercourse between this and the opposite shore, are numerous.

THE CUSTOM HOUSE.-The Custom-House is in West-street, to which every passenger must send his luggage, (out and home) and clear out from, before he can quit the country. But the business here is in very able hands, and unnecessary trouble never given on any occasion.

MUSIC LIBRARIES.-These places, two in number, are considered as great accommodations to the company resorting hither, and are, therefore, suitably encouraged. Their music, including the best and latest publications, are lent to subscribers, on a plan similar to that of a bookseller at a circulating library, either by the day, the week, the month, the quarter, or the year-they are Wright's, in North-street, and Mencke's, in Great East-street. Qualified music teachers are also here to be found.

THE CORN MARKET.-A weekly Corn Market, on Thursday, is held at the King and Queen. The different species of grain are here disposed of by the exhibition of samples only, and such is the ordinary custom in most places in this county.

WAGGON OFFICES.-The Carriers' Waggon Offices, for London, are proportionate in number to the size of the place, and suitable care is taken of the goods and packages entrusted to them. The chief of these are, Strudwick's, in Middle-street; Orton's Great East-street; Crosweller and Co.'s, at the north-west angle of Little East-street; Hope and Co's, in East-street; and Patching's, near the upper end of North-street.

VAN OFFICES.-Vans on springs, for the conveyance of luggage have also been established here, and, from their great accommodation, both to visitants and tradesmen, have met with deserved success. They leave Brighton every evening about six o'clock, and arrive at their various offices in London early on the following morning. Their offices here are Crosweller and Co.'s, in Little East-street; Hope and Co's in East-street; and Snow and Co.'s, in George-street.

INTERESTING STORY.

The following Story exhibits one of those noble traits which characterize many of the Tribes we are pleased indiscriminately to call Barbarians, as distinguished from those who enjoy the blessings of civilization. This disinterested magnanimity is one of those sublime and generous qualities which are inherent in man, and are prematurely annihilated by the petty, sordid, and selfish habits, which are perhaps the necessary attendants on our social compact.

A Chief of a party of the Bey's (of Tripoli) troops, pursued by the Arabs, lost his way, and was benighted near the enemy's camp. Passing the door of a tent that was open, he stopped his horse and implored assistance, being almost overcome and exhausted with fatigue and thirst. The warlike Arab bid his enemy enter his tent with confidence and treated him with all the hospitality and respect for which this people are so famous

The highest among them, like the heroes of old, wait on their guest. A man of rank, when visited by a stranger, quickly fetches a lamb from his flock and kills it, and his wife superintends her women in dressing it in the best manner: with some of the Arabs the primitive custom of washing the feet is yet adopted, and this compliment is performed by the head of the family. Their supper was the best of the fattest lambs roasted, their desert, dates and dryed fruit; and the lady of the tent, to honour more particulary her husband's guest, set before him a dish of bosseen of her own making. It was flour and water kneaded into a paste, and left on a cloth to rise while the fire was lighted; then throwing it on the embers, and turning it often, it was taken off half baked, broke into pieces and kneaded again with new milk, oil, and salt, made into the shape of a pudding and garnished with madeed, which is small bits of mutton dried and salted in the highest manner.

Though these two Chiefs were opposed in war, they talked with candour and friendship to each other, recounting the achievements of themselves and their ancestors, when a paleness overspread the countenance of the guest's host. He started from his seat, and retired and in a few moments afterwards sent word to his guest that a bed was prepared and all things ready for his repose; that he examined the Moor's horse and found it too much exhausted to bear him through a hard journey the next day; but

that before sun rise an able horse, with every accommodation, would be ready at the door of the tent, where he would meet him and expect him to depart with all expedition. The stranger, not able to account farther for the conduct of his host, retired to rest.

An Arab waked him in time to take refreshment before his departure, which was ready prepared for him ; but he saw none of the family till he perceived, on reaching the door of the tent the master of it holding the bridle of his horse, and supporting his stirrups for him to amount, which is done among the Arabs as the last office of friendship. No sooner was the stranger mounted than his host announced to him, that, through the whole of the enemy's camp, he had not so great an enemy to dread as himself. Last night, said he in the exploits of your ancestors, you discovered to me the murderer of my father. There lie all the habits he was slain in, (which were at that moment brought to the door of the tent,) over which, in the presence of my family, I have many times sworn to revenge his death, and to seek the blood of his murderer from sun-rise to sun-set. The sun has not yet risen, the sun will be no more than risen when I pursue you, after you have in safety quitted my tent, where, fortunately for you, it is against our religion to molest you after your having sought my protection and found a refuge there; but all my obligations cease as soon as we part, and from that moment you must consider me as one determined on your destruction, in whatever part, or at whatever distance, we may meet again. You have not mounted a horse inferior to the one that stands ready for myself; on its swiftness surpassing that of mine depends one of our lives or both. After saying this he shook his adversary by the hand and parted from him. The Moor, profiting by the few moments he had in advance, reached the Bey's army in time to escape his pursuer, who followed him closely as near the enemy's camp as he could with safety.

NATURAL PHENOMENON-SOUTH-WEST MONSOON.

The most remarkable rainy season is that called in India the South-west Monsoon. It extends from Africa to the Malay Peninsula, and deluges all the intermediate countries, within

certain lines of latitude, for four months in the year. In the the south of India this monsoon commences about the beginning of June, but it gets later as we advance towards the north. Its approach is announced by vast masses of clouds, that rise from the Indian Ocean, and advance towards the nort-east, gathering and thickening as they approach the land. After some threatening days, the sky assumes a troubled appearance in the evenings, and the monsoon in general sets in during the night. It is attended with such thunder storms as can scarcely be imagined by those who have only seen these phenomena in temperate climates.

It generally begins with violent blasts of wind, which are succeeded by floods of rain. For some hours lightning is seen almost without intermission. Sometimes it only illuminates the sky, and shows the clouds, near the horizon; at others it discovers the distant hills, and again leaves all in darkness; when in an instant it re-appears, in vivid and successive flashes, and exhibits the nearest objects in all the brightness of the day. During this time the distant thunder never ceases to roll, and is only silenced by some nearer peal, which bursts on the ear with such a sudden and tremendous crash, as can scarcely fail to strike the most insensible heart with awe. At length the thunder ceases, and nothing is heard but the continued pouring of the rain, and the rushing of the rising streams. The next day presents a gloomy spectacle: the rain still descends in torrents, and scarcely allows a view of the blackened fields. The rivers, swollen and discoloured, sweep down along with them the hedges, the huts, and the remains of the cultivation which was carried on, during the dry season, in their beds. This lasts for some days, after which the sky clears, and discovers the face of nature changed as if by enchantment.

Before the storm, the fields were parched up, and, except in the beds of the rivers, scarcely a blade of vegetation was to bc seen. The clearness of the sky was not intercepted by a single cloud, but the atmosphere was loaded with dust, sufficient to render distant objects dim, as in a mist, and to make the sun appear dull and discoloured, till it attained a considerable elevation. A parching wind blew like a blast from a furnace, and heated wood, iron, and every other solid material, even in the shade; and immediately before the monsoon, this wind had been succeeded by still more sultry calms. But when the first violence of the storm is over, the whole earth is covered with a sudden but luxuriant verdure; the rivers are full and tranquil ; the air is pure and delicious; and the sky is varied and embellished with clouds. The effect of the change is visible on all the animal creation, and can only be imagined in Europe by supposing the depth of a dreary winter to shoot at once into all the freshnes and brilliancy of spring. From this time the rain

falls at intervals for about a month, when it comes on again with great violence, and in July the rains are at their height. During the third month, they rather diminish, but are still heavy: and in September, they gradually abate, and are often entirely suspended, till near the end of the month, when they depart amidst thunders and tempests, as they came.

Such is the monsoon in the greater part of India. It is not, however, without some diversity, the principal feature of which is the delay in its commencement, and the diminution of the quantity of rain, as it recedes from the sea.

In the districts which are the subject of the present description, (Caubul and the neighbouring countries,) the monsoon is felt with much less violence than in India, and is exhausted at no great distance from the sea, so that no trace of it can be perceived in Caudahar. A remarkable exception to this rule is, however, to be observed in the north-east of Afghaunistaun, which, although much farther from the sea than Candahar, is subject to the monsoon; and, what is equally extraordinary, receives it from the east,

These anomalies may perhaps be accounted for by the following considerations. It is to be observed, that the clouds are formed by the vapours of the Indian Ocean, and are driven over the land by a wind from the south-west. Most part of the tract in which the kingdom of Caubul lies, is to leeward of Africa and Arabia, and receives only the vapours of the narrow sea between its southern shores and the latter country, which are but of small extent, aud are exhausted in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast. India lying further east, and beyond the shelter of Africa, the monsoon spreads over it without any obstruction. It is naturally most severe near the sea, from which it draws its supplies, and is exhausted after it has past over a great extent of land. For this reason, the rains are more or less plentiful in each country, according to its distance from the sea, except in those near high mountains, which arrest the clouds, and procure a larger supply of rain for the neighbouring tracts, than would have fallen to their share, if the passage of the clouds had been unobstructed.

The obstacle presented to the clouds and winds by the mountains has another effect of no small importance. The south-west monsoon blows over the ocean in its natural direction; and though it may experience some diversities after it reaches the land, its general course over India may still be said to be towards the north-east, till it is exhausted on the western and central parts of the Peninsula. The provinces in the north-east receive the monsoon in a different manner: the wind which brings the rains to that part of the continent originally blows from the south-west, over the Bay of Bengal, till the mountains of Hemalleh, and those which join them from the south, stop