Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/93

 extremity to a space of not more than a day's march in breadth, the Murzuk hamâda broadens out eastwards, gradually merging in the stony serirs and the unexplored deserts skirted on the north by the limestone terraces of the White Harûj. In its western section it is limited southwards by the narrow Wady Aberjush, beyond which recommence the stony plateaux. These desolate wastes, which are continued indefinitely southwards in the direction of the Tibbu terriory, are destitute of any vegetation beyond a few straggling gum-trees in their depressions. But towards the east is developed the vast semicircular basin of the Hofra, the great central cavity in which is situated Murzuk, present capital of Fezzan. This low-lying region is divided by waste and stony tracts into two clearly defined sections: to the west the Murzuk ousis, to the east that of Esh-Sherkiya, or "the

Eastern." The latter consists in reality of a long narrow chain of oases subdivided into numerous secondary depressions, which are separated from each other by sandy ridges, without presenting anywhere any regular slope.

The various oases vary in altitude from 1,000 to 1,650 feet, and Temissa, the last in the direction of the east, is everywhere surrounded by solitudes. The bed of the Hofra, like that of the other depressions in Fezzan, consists of heisha; here, however, containing rather more argillaceous soil than elsewhere. But this clay is saturated with salt to such an extent that the unbaked earthen bricks of the houses are dissolved during the heavy rains. The water drawn from the deep wells is