THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL 



51 



annihilation ? The hot breath of the wind blew 

 across the cramped water and whipped its sur- 

 face into little waves ; and as each tiny point 

 of spray rose on the crest and was lifted into 

 the air the fiery sunbeam caught it, and in a 

 twinkling had evaporated and carried it up- 

 ward. Day by day this process went on over 

 the whole surface until there was no more sea. 

 The hollow reefs rose high and dark above the 

 bed, the flat shoals of silt lifted out of the ooze, 

 and down in the lowest pools there was the 

 rush and plunge of monster tortuabas, sharks 

 and porpoises, caught as it were in a net and 

 vainly struggling to get out. How strange must 

 have seemed that landscape when the low ridges 

 were shining with the slime of the sea, when 

 the beds were strewn with algce, sponges, and 

 coral, and the shores were whitening with salt ! 

 How strange, indeed, must have been the first 

 sight of the Bottom of the Bowl! 



But the sun never relaxed its fierce heat nor 

 the wind its hot breath. They scorched and 

 burned the silt of the sea-bed until it baked 

 and cracked into blocks. Then began the wear 

 of the winds upon the broken edges until the 

 blocks were reduced to dry fine powder. Fi- 

 nally the desert came in. Drifts upon drifts of 



Evapo- 

 ration. 



Bottom of 

 the Bowl. 



Drying out 

 of the sea- 

 bed. 



