EXTRAORDINARY PASS. 
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animal life, except traces of the wadan. For two 
days, they tell us, we are to have little or no water. 
Now and then we pass desert mosques, — square, 
or circular, or cross-shaped walls of stone, some 
with two entrances, built for the devotion of chance 
passengers. The mountains on the east are called 
El Magheelaghen. To-day we carried my trunk 
with the money. Yusuf had previously given it in 
charge to a camel-driver, and the Tuaricks were 
always uneasy, asking to see if all were right. 
Europeans would probably have done the same 
under similar circumstances. 
On the 7th we made a good day of about eleven 
hours, continuing during the first three in shallow 
wadys, down one of which we had a distant view 
of the plain of Serdalous, on the north-west. Then 
came the breaking up of the great plateau of 
Fezzan, and we entered a pass which leads down 
into the subjacent Sahara, and runs west with 
an inclination to the south. This is, perhaps, one of 
the most extraordinary natural features I have ever 
beheld. It seems to have been purposely cut out of 
the solid rock for the use of man, and reminds one 
at first of a railway excavation. As we advance it 
assumes the form of a cave, slightly open at top, — 
narrow, winding, and furnished with seats on either 
hand. A dim light comes from above. Only one 
part was difficult for the boat. Noav and then 
the pass became quite a tunnel, but the concave 
roof is high enough for any camel to pass. On the 
