Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/408

 828 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. duots of their own gardens, so that all their supplies have to be brought from Egypt. However, the spirit of abnegation has nowadays little to do with the peopling of these monasteries of the wilderness, most of their inmates being in fact exiles condemned to a lingering death. No remains of ancient monuments are found in these solitudes, with perhaps the single exception of the traces of a glass manufactory, which may be recognised by the ruins of some brick furnaces and the fragments of scoria) and vitrified sands strewn about. Before the recent events, which have brought about the British occupation of Egypt, it was proposed to survey the region west of the Nile, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it might not be possible to construct a canal from the main stream, or from the Bahr-Yusef to the Bahr-Belsl-msL depressions, and thus bring 500,000 acres under cultivation. General Features of the "Western Oases. The level of the oases docs not present a regular slope from the frontiers of Nubia to the Mediterranean seaboard. Cailliaud's barometric measurements had already shown that the region of the depressions falls from the Dakhel oasis to that of Farafreh, again rising towards that of Bakharieh, beyond which it sinks in the Siwah district below the level of the sea. The operations executed by Jordan in 1873 and 1874 with more care and with better instruments have con- firmed this general conclusion, while slightly modifying the figures given by the French explorer. There is now no longer any doubt that the palm-groves of Siwah stand at a lower level than the Mediterranean, while the oasis of Araj would appear to be even some 150 feet still lower.* Farther on the chain of oases, which was perhaps a marine inlet during a former geological epoch, is continued south of the plateau of Cyrenaica through the Faredgha, Jalo, and Aujila oases. The whole series seems to be also below the level of the sea, a barrier of reefs and sand dunes alone preventing the marine waters from penetrating into the depression. Its mean level seems to be about 100 feet below the Mediterranean. After having determined this geographical fact engineers began to discuss the project of converting the whole of Cyrenaica into a large island by introducing the sea into the region of the oases. In the same way it has been proposed to create a vast " inland sea " farther west beyond the Syrtes. The term oasis at once suggests the idea of an earthly Eden, diversified with running waters and verdant plains. By the ancients, the Egyptian oases were called " Isles of the Blest," as if a residence in these palm-groves in the midst of Ehargeh. Dakhel. Farafreh. Bakharieh Araj Siwah CRillinnd. Feet. 345 . JorcLnn. Feet. 226 182 . 330 110 . 252 117 . 376 —200 . . —266 —110 . . —120
 * Altitude of the oases, according to Cailliaud and Jordan : —