144 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



like a dried-up arm of the sea. The valley of the Nile is 

 the eastern limit of the Lybian Desert. Beyond the Isth- 

 mus of Suez, beyond the porphyritic, syenitic, and basaltic 

 rocks of Sinai, begins the Desert mountain plateau of 

 Nedjid, which occupies the whole of the interior of the 

 Arabian Peninsula, and is bounded to the west and south 

 by the fertile and happier coast lands of Hedjaz and 

 Hadhramaut. The Euphrates, bounds the Arabian and 

 Syrian Deserts towards the east. Immense seas of sand, 

 (bejaban), cross Persia from the Caspian to the Indian Sea. 

 Among them are the salt and soda Deserts of Kerman, 

 Seistan, Beloochistan, and Mekran. The latter is separated 

 from the Desert of Moultan by the Indus. 



( 22 ) p. 11." The western part of the Atlas." 



The question respecting the position of the ancient Atlas 

 has been much discussed in modern times, but the oldest 

 Phoenician legends have been confounded in this discussion 

 with the later fables of the Greeks and the Romans. A 

 man who combined deep philological with thorough mathe- 

 matical and astronomical knowledge, Professor Ideler, (the 

 father,) was the first person who explained and dispelled the 

 confusion of ideas which had previously existed on this 

 subject. I permit myself to introduce here the remarks 

 that clear-sighted and highly-informed writer has communi- 

 cated to me on this important subject. 



*' At a very early period of the world the Phoenicians ven- 

 tured beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. They built Gades 

 and Tartessus on* the Spanish, and Lixus and several other 



