Romanorum Dissertatio: also treatises on the Roman weights, and manner of numbering. He was a member of the antiquarian academies of Veletra and Cortona.

RECUPERO (Joseph), brother of the preceding, was also a learned mineralogist. He embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and obtained a canonry in the cathedral of Catanea. He distinguished himself by his researches concerning Etna, and some details which he communicated to our countryman Brydone, relative to the probable age of the mountain. See ETNA. He published an oryctographical chart of Etna; and left a work on the same subject in manuscript. His death took place in 1787.

RECUR', v. n. Fr. recourir; Lat. recurro. To come back to the thought; revive in the mind; have recourse to (from the Fr. word).

If to avoid succession in eternal existence, they recur to the punctum stans of the schools, they will thereby very little help us to a more positive idea of

infinite duration.

Locke.

In this life the thoughts of God and a future state often offer themselves to us; they often spring up in our minds, and when expelled, recur again. Calamy.

The second cause we know, but trouble not ourWake. selves to recur to the first. When any word has been used to signify an idea, that old idea will recur in the mind when the word

is heard.

RECURE', v.a.

Watts.

Re and cure. To recover from sickness or labor. Not in use. Through wise handling and fair governance, I him recured to a better will,

Purged from the drugs of foul intemperance. Spenser. Phoebus pure

Id.

In western waves his weary wagon did recure. Whatsoever fell into the enemies' hands, was lost without recure the old men were slain, the young men led away into captivity.

Thy death's wound

Knolles.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

Which he who comes thy Saviour shall recure,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works
In thee and in thy seed.
RECURRENT, adj.~
RECURRENCE, N. s.
RECURRENCY,
RECURSION.

Fr. recurrent; Lat. recurrens. Returning from time to time: return; this last is the

neration.

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RECURVIROSTRA, in ornithology, a genus belonging to the order of gralla of Linnæus, and that of palmipedes of Pennant and Latham. The bill is long, subulated, bent back, sharp, and flexible at the point. The feet are webbed, and furnished with three toes forwards, and a short one behind. Latham notes of this genus three species, viz. the alba, the Americana, and the avosetta, or the one commonly known.

1. R. alba, or scolopax alba, is about fourteen inches and a quarter long, its color white, the inferior covers of its wings duskish, its bill orange, its legs brown. Edwards remarks that the bill of this bird is bent upwards, as in the avoset; it is black at the tip, and orange the rest of its length; all the plumage is white, except a tint of yellowish on the great quills of the wing and the tail. Edwards supposes that the whiteness is produced by the cold climate of Hudson's Bay, from which he received it, and that they resume their brown feathers during the summer. It appears that several species of this bird have spread further into America, and have even reached the southern provinces: for Sloane found this species in Jamaica; and Fernandez seems to indicate two of them in New Spain, by the names chiquatototl and elotototl; the former being like our woodcock, and the latter lodging under the stalks of maize.

2. R. Americana, the American avoset, is rather The bill is larger and longer than the avoset. similar, and its color black: the forehead is dusky white the head, neck, and upper part of the breast, are of a deep cream color: the lower parts of the neck behind white: the back is black, and the under parts from the breast pure white the wings are partly black, partly white, These birds inhabit and partly ash-colored. North America, and were found by Dampier on the coast of New Holland.

3. R. avosetta is about the size of a lapwing in body, but has very long legs. The substance of the bill is soft, and almost membranous at its tip: it is thin, weak, slender, compressed horizontally, and incapable of defence or effort. These birds are variegated with black and white, and during the winter are frequent on the eastern shores of Great Britain. They visit also the Severn, and sometimes the pools of Shropshire. They feed on worms and insects, which they scoop out of the sand with their bills. They lay two eggs, white, with a greenish hue, and large spots of black: these eggs are about the size of a pigeon's. They are found also in various parts of the continent of Europe, in Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, but they are not numerous. They are also found in Siberia, but oftener about the salt lakes of the Tartarian desert, and about the Caspian Sea. They do not appear to wander farther south in Europe than

RED, adj. Saxon ped; Welsh RED BREAST, N. S. rhud; Dan.rad; Belg. RED COAT, rood; Goth. riod; from RED DEN, v. a. & v.n. the Greek ɛpvpoc. Of RED DISH, adj. the color of blood: RED DISHNESS, n. s. one of the primitive RED'HOT, adj. colors, which is subdivided into many; as scarlet, vermilion, crimson the redbreast is a bird named from its color: redcoat, a contemptuous name for a soldier to redden is to make or grow red: reddish, somewhat red: the noun substantive corresponding red-hot is heated to redness.

His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Genesis xlix. 12. A bright spot, white and somewhat reddish.

The sixth red was at first of a very fair and lively scarlet, and soon after of a brighter colour, being very pure and brisk, and the best of all the reds. Newton's Optics.

Is not fire a body heated so hot as to emit light copiously? for what else is a redhot iron than fire? and what else is a burning coal than 'redhot wood?

For me the balm shall bleed, and amber blow,
The coral redden, and the ruby glow.

The redhot metal hisses in the lake.
Why heavenly truth,

.nd moderation fair, were the red marks
Of superstition's scourge.

Id.

Pope. Id.

Thomson's Winter.

The redbreast, sacred to the household gods, Pays to trusted man his annual visit.

Thomson.

And, instant, lo, his dizzy eye-ball swims Ghastly, and reddening darts a threatful glare : Pain with strong grasp distorts his writhing limbs, And Fear's cold hand erects his bristling hair!

Beattie.

RED is one of the colors called simple or primary: being one of the shades into which the light naturally divides itself, when refracted through a prism.

RED BREAST. See MOTACILLA.

RED LAKE, a lake of North America, a comparatively small lake for this neighbourhood, but at the head of a branch of the Bourbon or Red River. Its form is nearly circular, about sixty miles in circumference. On one side is a tolerably large island. It is almost south-east from Lake Winnipeg, and south-west of the Lake of the Woods. Long. 95° 10′ W., lat. 47° 40′ N.

RED RIVER, or Natchitoches, a large river of Louisiana, North America, which derives its name from the rich fat earth or marl of that color, borne down by its floods. It rises about long. 105° W., lat. 35° N., and flows into the Mississipi, 240 miles above New Orleans, in Long. 91° 48′ W., lat. 31° 15 N. The navigation of the Red River is interrupted at a place called Rapide, 135 miles from its mouth, by a ledge of soft rock of the consistence of pipe-clay, which extends across the river, but might be easily removed. No difficulty, however, is experienced except in low water. About 500 miles from its mouth the voyager meets with a more serious obstacle, namely, the natural bridges or rafts formed by the accumulation of drift wood, under which the current of this great river passes for several miles. They have remained unbroken for so long a period that they have acquired a soil and a growth of timber similar to the surrounding country.

The RED SEA (Sinus Arabicus), is a gulf of the Sea of Arabia, 500 leagues in length and seventy-five in its greatest breadth. It is entered from the gulf of Socotra by a channel, ten leagues wide, in which is the little island of Perim, or Mehun, three miles and a half distant from the Arabian shore, the channel between being the proper strait of Babelmandeb, or the Gate of Tears, alluding to its difficult navigation, and which is the most used, as it is without

danger, and has good anchorage, while the broa passage between the coast of Africa and Perim has too great a depth of water, and, the current usually setting strong into the Bay of Zeila, it is dangerous to be caught here in a calm.

The denomination of Red, given to this sea, is differently accounted for. Buffon accords

with the idea that it received it from the color of the coral with which it abounds; but this substance is in general whitish. Others derive it from Edom or Idumea, the ancient names of Upper Egypt washed by the sea, which, signifying red, they suppose to have been given it from the reddish color of the shore. The modern Arabian name is Bahr Suph, Sea of Algæ, from the quantity of these plants that cover the rocks. Of the sea of Arabia called by the ancients Mare Erythræum, Quintus Curtius, after observing that the Ganges empties itself into it, adds, Mare certe quo (India) aluitur ne colore quidem abhorret a ceteris. Ab Erythra rege inditum est nomen: propter quod ignari rubere aquas credunt.' Lib. viii. chap. 9. The sea washing India varies not from other seas. It de rived its name from king Erythros; on which account the ignorant believe the water to be red.' Pratt's translation. The weed named suph by the Hebrews is of a red hue between scarlet and crimson; it abounds in the gulf of Suez. And it is remarkable that the name by which the Arabian Gulf at large is designated throughout the Old Testament is that preserved in the Arab. Bater Souf. By the septuagint the original word is rendered aλara Eup, the Sea of Zeph; Eovopa alagoav, the Erythrean Sea, and εσχατην θαλασσαν, the further sea.

At its head the Red Sea forms two gulfs: the western is named the Gulf of Suez, the Heroopolites sinus of the ancients, and the Bahr-elKolzum, or Bahr-el Suez, of the Arabs. The eastern gulf of Akaba is the ancient Elanites sinus, and the Bahr-el-Ailah of the Arabs. The tract which separates these gulfs is named the Desert of Sinai, into which Moses led the children of Israel.

It seems certain that the Red Sea formerly extended several miles farther to the north than it does at present; it now heads about four miles above Suez, and beyond this, running ten miles to the north, is a depressed tract, the level of which is thirty-five feet below that of the sea, and which is only kept from being overflowed by an elevated ridge of sand. The soil of this sunk basin is sea sand and shells; and it has several shallow ponds of salt water. The desic cation of this basin is accounted for by supposing the waves to have accumulated a bar of sand, which, at length, rising above the level of the sea, a lake was formed, the waters of which have been carried off by evaporation. It is generally thought also that the Red Sea is thirty-four feet more elevated than the Mediterranean; hence it would follow, that if the Isthmus of Suez was cut through, the waters of the Red Sea would rush with rapidity into the Mediterranean, while those of the Atlantic running in through the Strait of Gibraltar, an accumulation and concussion would take place, the consequences of which are incalculable. And even supposing

the levels of the two seas to be the same, as there is no tide in the Mediterranean, and a very strong one in the Red Sea, this would alone cause a great body of water to flow from the latter into the former, if the isthmus was broken.

The tides in the Red Sea are considerable from its entrance facing the east, and there being no rivers to counteract the stream. The winds considerably affect these tides; and it is not uncommon, in strong north westers, for the bottom to be left entirely dry on the ebb, between Suez and the opposite shore. The monsoons, which are strong and regular in the open sea of Arabia, are subject to variations in approaching the land. In the gulf of Socotra their direction is usually from the east between October and May, and from the west the other six months; while, within the Red Sea, they blow directly up and down, but with this variation, that the south-east winds blow without intermission in the lower part of the sea, from October to June, when the northerly winds begin and continue for four months. Towards the head of the sea, ir. the gulf of Suez, northerly winds, on the contrary, prevail for nine months, and blow with great violence. The causes of these variations are evidently the positions of the sea of Arabia and the Mediterranean, with respect to the Red Sea. Thus the monsoon, which is from the east in the gulf of Socotra, changes to the south-east and S. S. E. in the Red Sea, from this sea lying in a direction south-east and north-west; and is of longer continuance, from the atmosphere of the sea of Arabia being for a great part of the year colder than that of the Red Sea. For a similar reason north-west winds are of longest duration at the head of the sea; for the denser air of the Mediterranean is almost constantly flowing towards the more rarified atmosphere of the desert of Suez and Red Sea, and this cause is strongest in the months of June, July, and August, when the presence of the sun has most raised the temperature of these latter; hence north-west winds blow with great violence towards the head of the sea during these months. Though these monsoon winds prevail with great regularity in the middle of the sea, close to the shores, there are, throughout the year, land and sea breezes; but they cannot be taken advantage of in navigating this sea, by reason of the reefs which line the shores, obliging ships to keep at too great a distance during the night to profit by the land wind. The currents mostly run with the wind.

We have no knowledge of a single stream of fresh water reaching the Red Sea. The river Farat, laid down in the charts on the African coast, nearly opposite Judda, is probably only a creek. The Arabian coast is lined by a chain of mountains throughout its whole extent, whose base is from ten to thirty leagues from the sea; the intermediate space being an arid sea sand, totally deprived of fresh water, and naturally producing only a few herbaceous plants, such as the mesembryanthem, euphorbia, stapelia, coloquintia, &c. This barren waste, however, abounds with antelopes and other game; and immediately beyond it the scene suddenly changes to an exuberant vegetation, and a profusion of spring water.

The climate of the Red Sea differs essentially at its extremities. At Mocha, with the exception of a few light showers about Christmas, rain is unknown; and the thermometer, in July and August, rises to 112° during the day, and never descends below 90° at night. The dews arc, throughout the year, extremely heavy.

The African coast of the Red Sea is divided into Abyssinia, Baza, and Upper Egypt. The coast of Abyssinia, being generally avoided by ships navigating in this sea, was very imperfectly known until the visit of lord Valentia in 1804. It is now found to possess several good ports, but also to be of dangerous approach in several places from reefs and islands. From Ras Firmah, the north point of Asab Bay, on which is the negro town of Asab (Saba), to Ras Rattah or the Sister Hills, there are several curvatures and good anchorage.

Suez is a modern and a poor place, being ruined by the cessation of commerce during the occupation of Egypt by the French. It is situated on an inlet filled with banks, which dry at half tide, and crossed by a bar two miles and a half below the town, with but ten or eleven feet high water: inside the depths between the banks are eight and nine feet at low, and fifteen to sixteen feet high water springs. This forms a kind of inner harbour, in which the country vessels lay when they require careening, which is done in a cove or basin at the back of the town. The water used by the inhabitants and shipping is brought on camels from wells to the east of the town at a considerable distance. The ruins of Clysma are visible in a mount of rubbish south of Suez, now called Kolzum. In 1817 a small fleet of English ships arrived here direct from Bombay, in consequence of the desire of the pacha of Egypt to open a direct trade between India and that country.

The Arabian coast of the Red Sea includes Yemen or Tehama, and Hejaz. The coast from Cape Babelmandeb, at the entrance of the strait, to Mocha is clean and bold-to; but from this to the north it is lined with reefs within, and through which the Arab vessels sail by day only.

Niebuhr thinks this was the point at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea it is a passage of twenty-fours to Tor on the opposite side; but as he observes, and as we have noticed, there can be no doubt the sea formerly extended much farther north.

The natives point out the valley of Bedeah, and other points of the coast further southward, opposite Ayoun Mousa and the Hammam Faraoun. Dr. Shaw objects, against the opinion which fixes the passage opposite Ayoun Mousa, that there is not sufficient depth of water there to drown so many Egyptians,-an objection which would seem to apply with still greater force to the opinion of Niebuhr and others, who fix upon Suez as the point at which they crossed. But the fact is, that the waters have retired, and the coral shoals have increased so much in every part of the gulf that no decisive argument can be built on the present shallowness of the water. In former times, ships entered the harbour of Kolsoum, which stood higher up than Suez, but, in consequence of the retreat of the waters, that

harbour was deserted, and Suez, which was not in existence towards the end of the fifteenth century, rose on its ruins. Niebuhr crossed the creek at low water on his camel, near the supposed ruins of Kolsoum, and the Arabs, who attended him on foot, were only up to their knees; but no caravan, he says, could pass here without great inconvenience, and certainly not dry-foot. Nor could the Israelites, he remarks, have availed themselves of any coral rocks, as they are so sharp that they would have cut their feet. Moreover, if we suppose that the agency of the tides was employed by divine providence in favoring the passage of the Israelites, the east wind which, blowing all night, divided the waters of the gulf in the middle, preserving a body of water above and below, and laying bare the channel between the walls,-was clearly supernatural. The wind here constantly blows six months north and six months south. And, as this unprecedented ebb of the waters must have been preternatural, not less so was the sudden tempestuous reflux by which the Egyptians were overwhelmed. Perhaps a thick fog, it is suggested, might hasten their destruction. The depth at high water now does not exceed from eight to ten feet, but the same causes which have enlarged the land on the eastern shore, have rendered the gulf shallower. The winds, blowing the sands of Arabia into the Red Sea, are constantly forming shallows among the rocks, and threaten in time to fill up the gulf. Dr. Shaw, however, displays his usual learning and ingenuity in fixing the passage of the Israelites opposite the desert of Shur. Supposing Rameses to have been Cairo, there are two roads, he remarks, by which the Israelites might have been conducted to Pihahhiroth on the coast; the one through the valleys of Jendily, Rumeleah, and Baideah, which are bounded on each side by the mountains of the Lower Thebais; the other, more to the northward, having these mountains for several leagues on the right, and the desert on the left, till it turns through a remarkable breach or ravine in the northernmost range, into the valley of Baideah. The latter he presumes to have been the road taken by the Israelites. Succoth, the first station, signifies only a place of tents; and Etham, the second station, he considers as probably on the edge of the mountainous district of the Lower Thebais. Here the Israelites were ordered to turn (from their line of march), and encamp before Pihahhiroth, i. e. the mouth of the gullet or defile, betwixt Migdol and the sea. This valley he supposes to be identified with that of Baideah, which signifies miraculous, and it is also still called Tiah Beni Israel, the road of the Israelites. Baal-tzephon, over against which they encamped, is supposed to be the mountain still called Jebel Attakkah, the mountain of deliverance. Over against Jebel Attakkah, at ten miles distance, is the desert of Sdur, or Shur, where the Israelites landed. This part of the gulf would, therefore, be capacious enough to cover a numerous army, and yet might be traversed by the Israelites in a night; whereas, from Corondel to Tor, the channel is ten or twelve leagues broad, which is too great a distance to have been travelled by a multitude

with such incumbrances, and the passage from Suez appears as much too short. Having once entered this valley, it might well be said that the wilderness had shut them in,' inasmuch as the mountains of Mokattem would deny them a passage to the southward; those in the neighbourhood of Suez would be a barrier to the northward, towards the land of the Philistines; the Red Sea was before them to the east, while Pharaoh with his army closed up the defile behind them. The valley ends in a small bay formed by the eastern extremities of the mountains.

Dennis Bay, in about 14° 35′, is according to the French a safe road with a watering place. Hodeida is a considerable town and the sea port of Betelfakie, whence a great quantity of coffee is shipped. Cape Israel is a long projecting point, with a bay on the north sheltered by the island of Camaran. Loheia is at the north extremity of this bay, and is a large town without walls, but with several towers guarded by soldiers; some of the houses are of stone, but the greater number are of mud thatched. The shore is here so shoal that ships cannot anchor nearer than two leagues to the town, and even boats cannot approach it at low water; it has, however, a share of the coffee trade. Ghesan and Attui are towns further north. Camfida (Hejaz) is a considerable town, ten leagues north of which is Bender Dodja, where there is said to be good water. From hence to Cape Ibrahim the land is high with some small towns little known to Europeans.

Judda, the sea-port of Mecca, which is forty miles inland, is a large town with an extensive trade, as well with Europeans from India as with other parts of the Red Sea, particularly Cossire, Suez, and Tor. The harbour is formed by a great number of reefs, and the anchorage is three miles from the town. The town is tolerably built, and is governed by a vizier from Mecca.

The places in succession from Judda, of which we have any knowledge, are Yambo (Jambia), by the Arabs called Jembo el Bahr; it is the port of Medina, a day's journey inland, and is a considerable town, but partly in ruins, with a harbour between two reefs, but very contracted. The land over it is extremely high and rugged. It is a general rendezvous of the Arab vessels bound to and from Egypt, but is never visited by European ships, the natives being treacherous and inhospitable. Bareedy harbour, also formed by shoals, is fourteen leagues farther north.

Ras Aboo Mahomet (Pharan promont.) is the extremity of the peninsula that separates the gulfs of Akaba and Suez; it is a very low sandy point, but with deep water close to it, and behind the point a chain of high hills runs through the peninsula to Mount Sinai. Before the centre of the entrance of the Gulf of Akaba, and north of Cape Mahomet, is the island Tiran, elevated in the middle. On the east shore of the en trance of the gulf is Calai el Moatloah (Pheni cum oppidum), a large town, whose inhabitants have the name of great robbers, and this gulf is infested by pirates. Near its head is Calaat el Akaba (Ælana), whence the gulf has received its name. El Akaba, i. e. the end (of the sea), Vol

ney thinks it may be the Atsium Gaber of the Bible, which, as well as Ailah on the same guf. which still retains its name, was a celebrated mart in the time of Solomon. Being in the posses sion of the Bedouin Arabs, who have no idea of commerce, they are never visited. El Akase is said to be a Turkish fort, and to possess good water.

The gulf of Suez is entered between Ras Mahomet and the island of Shadwan, the chance! being four leagues wide. Tor, the Elim of the Scripture, and the Phenicon of the Romans, is now a wretched village, inhabited by about 100 Greeks, and a few Arab fishermen. The ruins of a well built Turkish fort denote it to have formerly been of more consequence. The des cription of this place given in the Bible perfectly answers to its appearance at this day, except that three only of the twelve wells are now to be seen, about 200 yards from the beach, and the only verdure is two small clumps of date trees. The water of the wells is less brackish baz that of Mocha or Judda, but is in very small quantity, and is only freshened by filtration through the sand of the beach. There are no kind of refreshments except fish, and they are far from abundant, to be procured here. The foot of the ridge of hills which runs through the peninsula is about a day's journey, or six leagues from Tor. Amongst them Mount Sinai raises its lofty head in two peaks, and to the religious mind recalls the scenes described by the sacred historian; it is a vast mass of red granite with white spots. In the little dispersed spots of soil, almonds, figs, and vines, are cultivated, and numerous rills of excellent water gush from the crevices, and wander among these little gardens; at its foot is a monastery of Greek monks. The coasts of this peninsula are lined with coral reefs, and covered with petrifications. The road or harbour of Tor is perfectly safe, being sheltered by reefs running off from the points of a semi-circular bay, having a channel a mile and a half wide. Cape Jehan is eight or nine leagues north-west of Tor.

A mere enumeration of the vast number of islands and reefs, above and under water, scattered throughout the Red Sea, would be equally useless and tedious, we shall therefore contine ourselves to the notice of those which are most conspicuous and best known.

On the African shore are Dhalac Island, seven leagues long, with many islands and reefs near it. St. John's Island, five or six leagues southeast of Emerald Island, has a high hill at the south-east end. Shadwan, at the entrance of the gulf of Suez, is a large and high island.

Nearest to the Arabian shore is the island Babelmandeb, Perim, or Mehun, anciently Diodiri, three miles and a half from Cape Babelmandeb, and forming the lesser strait. It is four miles in circuit, of little elevation, but highest in the middle; it is covered with large loose masses of black stone, except in some spots where a thin sea sand covers a coral rock, and exceeds even in sterility the neighbouring continent, a few aromatic plants, and a prickly and leafless shrub of the milky tribe, being the only vegetables: and even these are in so smail a quantity, that if