340 TRAVELSTODISCOVER' 



of this fifh great numbers in the Red Sea, and in the Indian 

 Ocean ; how they came upon the buflies, or at the roots of 

 them, appears more the bufmefs of the prefent narrative. 

 To confine myfelf to the matter of fa6t, I fhall only fay, that 

 throughout this defert are many fprings of fak- water ; great 

 part of the defert is foflile fak, which, buried in fome places 

 at different depths according to the degree of inclination 

 of all minerals to the horizon, does at times in thefe foun- 

 tains appear very near the furface. Here I fuppofe the feed 

 is laid, and, by the addition of the rain-water that falls up- 

 on the fak during the tropical rains, the quantity of falt- 

 water is much increafed, and thefe fifhes fpread themfelves 

 over the plain as in a temporary ocean. The rains decreafe, 

 and the fun returns ; thofe that are near fprings retire to 

 them, and provide for the propagation of future years. 

 Thofe that have wandered too far oiFin the plains retire 

 to the buflies as the only flicker from the fun. The in- 

 tenfe heat at length deprives them of that fliade, and they 

 perifli with the leaves to which they crept for flicker, and 

 this is the reafon that we faw fuch a quantity of fliells un- 

 der the buflies ; that we found them otherwife alive in the 

 very heart of the fprings, we fliall further circumftantiate 

 in our Appendix, when we fpeak of niuflels fo found in our 

 hillory of the formation of pearls,. 



Rashid was once full of villages, all of which are now 

 ruined by the Arabs Daveina. There are feven or eight 

 wells of good water here, and the place itfelf is beautiful 

 beyond defcription. It is a fairy land, in the middle of an 

 inhofpitable, uninhabited defert ; full of large wide fpread- 

 ing trees, loaded with flowers and fruit, and crowded with- 

 an immenfe number of the deer kind. Among thefe,- 



we 



