DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
129 
with the dazzling white of the masses of natron, 
and the grey dusky gravel of the desert. These 
lakes are frequented by the cameleon, the antelope, 
and vast numbers of aquatic fowls, among which 
the flamingo is remarkable for the brilliancy of its 
plumage. 
The natron lakes, which are seven in number, 
are separated by banks of sand. In the dry sea- 
son, they shrink into small detached ponds, but 
when the water rises highest, they are united in 
one great lake, which occupies a space of six leagues 
in length, and covers the whole breadth of the val- 
ley. When the water retires, and the lakes sepa- 
rate, the ground which is exposed is covered w ith 
a saline sediment, which hardens in the sun, crys- 
tallizes, and forms the natron. The thickness of 
the saline stratum varies with the period of the in- 
undation, and where it is of short continuance, the 
natron appears only as a slight efflorescence, like 
flakes of snow. The water is sometimes covered 
with this saline substance ; and Granger relates, 
that, at the end of August, when he visited these 
lakes, the superficial crust was sufficiently conso- 
lidated to allow his camels to pass over its surface. 
The inundation of the salterns of Nitria corre- 
sponds with the subsiding of the Nile, and, on that 
account, the rise of their waters is, by the modern 
Egyptians, attributed to the operation of the river, 
VOL. II. * 
