340 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
of this fifh great numbers in the Red Sea, and in the Indian 
Ocean ; how they came upon the bufhes, or at the roots of 
them, appears more the bufinefs of the prefent narrative. 
To confine myfelf to the matter of fact, I fhall only fay, that 
throughout this defert are many fprings of falt-water; great 
part of the defert is foffile falt, 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. Herel fuppofe the feed: 
is laid, and, by the addition of the rain-water that falls up. 
on the falt during the tropical rains, the quantity of falt-. 
water is much increafed, and thefe fifhes {pread themfelves: 
ever the plain as in atemporary ocean. The rains decreafe,. 
and the fun returns; thofe that are near f{prings retire to- 
them, and provide for the propagation of future years. 
Thofe that have wandered too far off-in the plains retire: 
to the bufhes as the only fhelter from the fun. The in-’ 
tenfe heat at length deprives them of. that fhade, and they - 
perifh with the leaves to which they crept. for fhelter, and’ 
this is the reafon that we faw fuch a quantity of fhells un-. 
der the bufhes ; that we found them otherwife alive in the 
very heart of the fprings, we fhall further circumftantiate : 
in our Appendix, when we fpeak of muffels fo found in our- 
hiftory of the formation of pearls.. } 
Rasuip 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’ 
mnhofpitable, uninhabited defert ; full of large wide {pread- 
ing trees, loaded with flowers and fruit, and crowded with 
an. immenfe number of the deer kind.. Among. thefe, 
we. 
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