58 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



respectively 3960 and 2851 English feet, too great. 

 The map gives to the Sorata 21286, and to the Illimani 

 21149 English feet. A more exact calculation of the tri- 

 gonometrical operations of 1838 has led Mr. Pentland to 

 these new results. There are, according to him, in the 

 western Cordillera four peaks of from 21700 to 22350 

 English feet. The highest of these, the peak of Sahama, 

 would thus be 926 English feet higher than the Chim- 

 borazo, and but 850 English feet lower than the Yolcano 

 of Acongagua, measured by the expedition of the Beagle 

 (Fitz Roy's Narrative, Yol. ii. p. 481.) 



( 6 ) p. 3. " The Desert near the basaltic mountains 

 of Harudsh." 



Near the Egyptian Natron Lakes, (which in the time of 

 Strabo had not yet been divided into six reservoirs), there 

 is a range of hills which rises steeply on the northern side, 

 and runs from east to west past Eezzan, where it, finally 

 appears to join the chain of the Atlas. It divides in 

 north-eastern Africa, as the Atlas does in north-western 

 Africa, the inhabited maritime Lybia of Herodotus from 

 the land of the Berbers, or Biledulgerid, abounding in wild 

 animals. From the limits of Middle Egypt the whole region 

 south of the 30th degree of North latitude is a sea of sand, 

 in which are dispersed islands, or Oases, containing springs 

 of water and a flourishing vegetation. The number of these 

 Oases, of which the ancients only reckoned three, and which 

 Strabo compared to the spots on a panther's skin, has 

 been considerably augmented by the discoveries of modern 

 travellers. The third Oasis of the ancients, now called 



