OASES. 
187 
panded wings. After delineating the course of 
the Nile and the eastern desert, another mng, if 
it may be allowed to adopt the metaphor, still re- 
mains to be described. Behind the western ridge 
of mountains which confines the valley of the 
Nile, a vast desolate tract extends, which the 
Arabian geographers assign to Egypt, and denomi- 
nate Al Wahat, the desert of the Wahs or Oases. 
The boundaries of this tract are quite imagin- 
ary, but it is described as extending about three 
hundred and fifty G. miles from N. to S. and one 
hundred and fifty from E. to W. Ibn al Wardi, 
and Leo, by whom it is termed Alguechet, class 
this district as a separate division of Africa be- 
tween Barca and Egypt. In this region of steri- 
lity and desolation, where the burning and verti- 
cal sun seems to survey only the ashes of a world 
destroyed by fire, or the sands of a vast sea from 
which the waters have retreated, the green and fer- 
tile Oases, the islands of the desert, emerge on the 
delighted eye of the traveller, like visions of en- 
chantment. The contrast of the vi^aste and deso- 
late sea of sand with which they are surrounded, 
enhances the idea of their beauty ; and so powers 
ful was its impression on the ancients, that they 
denominated them the Happy Islands.* The vi- 
cinity of the mountainous ridges by which these 
* Herodotus, Thalia, 26. 
