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soda is extracted and purified. The outcrop of salt gives the country a ver)' wintry 

 aspect ; the appearance, in fact, suggests a heavy fall of snow. This illusion, 

 however, is rapidly dispelled by the quantities of mosquitoes which frequent the 

 margins of the lakes. The soda factory is about eight miles from the southern end 

 of the Wady, near the east side of the fourth lake, counting from that end. Near 

 the factory is an excellent spring of fresh water, and similar springs of equally 

 good fresh water rise in the centre of the salt lakes. There are two or three very 

 small villages in the Wady ; but, ajiart from the men working at the soda factory, 

 the principal inhabitants of the district are the monks in the Coptic monasteries, 

 of which there are four. The only ancient remains are at Zaghig, situated about 

 the middle of the Wady, where are the ruins of an old glass factory. Pieces of 



Mount Muluk. 



rather finely-coloured blue and green glass can still be found. About two miles 

 west of Bir Hooker is the hill Muluk, rising about eighty feet from the surrounding 

 plain, where there are considerable deposits of fossils. The qnickest route from 

 Cairo to the Wady Natron is by tlie light railway from Khatatbeah on the Cairo- 

 Alexandria line to Bir Hooker. The principal stop is about half-way between 

 Khatatbeah and the Wady at Bir Victoria, celebrated for its well, which is said 

 to be the best in Egypt. The water there is rather wasted, as the population of 

 the jilace consists of four huma?i beings (the station-master and his family) and 

 a small herd of goats. Tlie country round is covered with silicious pebbles; and 

 the plants which grow in the sandy depressions are even fewer than in the ^Vady 

 Natron. Animal life is decidedly scarce all over the district, (jazelles are far 

 from common, though we observed a few, which we unfortunately failed to secure. 



