hydraulic machine, being convinced that the fields of that country wanted water only to make them produce at any time of the year. Belzoni, however, had little calculated the obstacles to be found in Oriental apathy and prejudice. The people, and even the authorities, looked coldly on machines for dispensing with labour, which they ignorantly thought would thus be deprived of employment. The machine was constructed on the principle of a crane with a walking wheel, in which a single ox, by its own weight alone, could effect as much as four oxen employed in the common method of the country. Belzoni's machine was at last set up at Soubra, but here an unlucky accident soon put an end to the inventor's hopes. The Viceroy of Egypt, having arrived at Soubra, determined to have it tested in his presence. The results were conclusive in its favour. The Viceroy—the famous Mehemet Ali—was satisfied of its utility and importance, and, the business of the day being over, he desired that the oxen should be taken out of the wheel, in order to see, by way of frolic, what effect the machine would have by putting men into it. Accordingly fifteen men entered the wheel, besides a faithful Irish lad, who had accompanied Belzoni in his travels; but no sooner had the wheel turned than the men jumped out, leaving the lad alone. The wheel, now overbalanced by the weight of the water, turned back with such velocity that the poor lad was thrown out, breaking his thigh-bone; and, but for the presence of mind of Belzoni in stopping the wheel, the accident must have proved fatal to him. This evil omen, as the superstitious Egyptians considered any accident in trying a new machine, proved the ruin of
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