NO. I NATIVES OF KHARGA OASIS HRDLICKA 3 
tures negro admixture. The selection on the last mentioned basis 
is of particular importance, for an inclusion of those who are visibly 
part negro would necessarily vitiate the outcome of the observations. 
Even with the precaution taken some individuals were doubtless 
included who were not free from negro blood, but the influence of 
such unrecognizable cases on the results must be small. The mixture 
with the negro at the Oasis is on the whole less extensive than in 
some parts of the valley. It is also in general more modern and 
more easily eliminated. 
The women of the Oasis, regrettably, could not be studied, due to 
the restrictions of the Mohammedan religion. 
2. GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE 
GREAT OASIS 
The Kharga Oasis lies 1 130 miles west from Luxor, the ancient 
Thebes ; the nearest point on the Nile, however, is less distant. For 
the last four years it has been connected with the Nile valley by a 
railroad ; before that time it was reached only by from three to five 
days' journey across the desert with camels. 
The Oasis is a great but shallow and flat depression, over 3,000 
square kilometers in extent, in the Libyan Desert, which in these 
regions is absolutely barren. It extends roughly between the paral- 
lels of 26 to 24 north latitude and forms the eastern portion of an 
immense shallow natural excavation, the western part of which is 
the Western or Dakhla Oasis (fig. i) . 
The Kharga Oasis has been peopled since early dynastic if not 
pre-dynastic times. It yields ancient stone implements, is mentioned 
in some of the oldest Egyptian records, and contains the remains of 
numerous old settlements as well as of several temples. It also has 
the best preserved Coptic necropolis. 
At the present time, as probably always in the past, a great part 
of the Oasis depression is desert. The habitable portions are those 
that contain flowing, generally artificial wells. These parts, several 
in number, are separated by the sands and barrens and are the real 
oases in the great arid desert depression. 
Each of these smaller or larger watered areas is represented by 
a village or town, the main of which, from north to south, are known 
as Kharga, Gennah, Boulac or Bulaq, and Beris. In addition there 
following, in the main, J. Ball, "Kharga Oasis: its Topography and 
Geology." Geological Survey Report. Survey Department, Egypt, 1899; 8. 
Cairo, 1900; and Beadnell, H. J. L An Egyptian Oasis, 8, London, 1909. 
