174 REPORT—1 874. 
terraces of vegetation of these enchanting spots. The ten inhabited portions are 
stated to have 5700 inhabitants, dwelling in restricted and fortified situations, 
owing to their continual dread of surprise by Tripolitanian hordes. In Khargeh 
itself the houses are absolutely built over the streets, being, as it were, on piles 
supported by rough beams, through which the inhabitants grope in a stooping 
posture, Though using a language differing but little from that of the modern 
eyptians, they betray no facial characteristics of the latter, being apparently the 
remains of one of the numerous Lyhbian races of the hieroglyphical Berber nations, 
of more northern extraction. They are of signally livid complexion, owing to 
prevalence of fever from miasma. Vaccination is enforced. They are lax in 
their observance of the rules of the Prophet, and do not possess a single trace of 
Christian tradition. Five large temples (500 years B.c.), seven Roman castles, 
hundreds of wells, the Necropolis of Hibe, and other remains testify to the great 
former prosperity of the oasis. Close to Doosh is the dwelling of a commander in 
the time of Trajan, in excellent preservation. The (Christian) Necropolis of Hibe 
is in wandexsaily perfect condition. Its construction deviates entirely from Egyp- 
tian models, and follows the Roman rather than the Greek style. Embalming was 
certainly practised here by Christians of the first five centuries. The various in- 
scriptions on rocks, dating through a series of epochs, afford a strange picture of 
the slowness with which time effects transformations of surface. Seventy-five 
springs, all of the earliest antiquity, are in use, and no new ones are ever opened. 
They are periodically cleaned by divers, at the risk of their lives, for a few copper 
piastres. An Egyptian engineer has, however, found water at 60 to 100 metres in 
the Dakhel oasis; and there is no doubt that the district could be restored by 
artesian wells to its former prosperity. The author thinks it least improbable that 
the water has its source in the Nubian Nile, probably above the cataracts of Wady 
Talfa ; but he seems to doubt all the explanations attempted for its origin, by 
stating that all these springs are thermal, far exceeding the average temperature of 
the year, and consequently of the upper strata of the Sahara. There are no traces 
of a bed of a former current from the Egyptian Nile valley westward through 
which the Nile ‘might have flowed, although an imaginary series of oasis valleys 
figures in all maps. It is strange, nevertheless, that “ Bader-bela ma” (7%. e. river 
without water) is a frequent local name for valleys and sandy wadys. The soil of 
the oasis chain betrays no traces of the clay alluvial land of the Nile, there are 
no fish in any of the waters, and the botanico-geographical facts recapitulated by 
the author also negative the idea of the Nile having ever flowed here. After 
entering upon the various geological features of the district at some length, he 
thinks it safe to assume that the subterranean water of the oasis is equal to that 
of a first-class river. The scheme of irrigation is primitive, neither draw-wells 
nor wheels being known, and much is wasted, becoming impregnated with salts 
from some of the strata; and these salts, and the encroachment of quicksands, 
which usurp the finest parts of the oasis, are very prejudicial to cultivation. The 
sand hills are continuously advancing from north to south, with a gentle inclination 
westward, forming a crescent-like arch. The largest are in Dakhel, where they are 
insurmountable by camels, and Spee Rohlfs’s advance. All Egyptian plants, 
except the hog’s bean, are found in the oasis, many cereals being cultivated, and 
rice and barley especially thriving. The date is naturally the staple of the agri- 
culturist, and the sedrinie trees are estimated at 80,000, taxes being levied on the 
number of trees and the area of the cultivated soil. One tree, sixty years old, 
with sixfold ramifications of long shooting branches, is stated as probably not to 
be matched in the whole world. The camel cannot be acclimatized, owing to the 
damp summer miasma and plagues of midges; but donkeys, cows, buffaloes, and 
sheep are easily reared. The indigenous mammalian fauna is extensive (including 
five carnivora); stationary birds are few, but migatory birds abound, though, 
singularly enough, neither ducks nor geese are found in the waters of the oasis. 
All the oases on the east of the Lybian desert have the same flora, and the 
explored part yielded 225 species, which would probably only be increased by one 
fourth if more thoroughly worked. Nearly half of them are connected with the 
vegetable germs, 
culture of rice. “Eyen in its most torpid state, the soil appears nowhere wanting in : 
ws 
