Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/193

 screen. We see, however, one expanse of water that is no mirage; it is the Shott, or Lake, Melrhir, a shallow salty sea, two hundred miles in length, and at certain seasons less than three inches deep. Its bottom is of brackish mud, and emits an odor resembling that of garlic, due, we are told, to the presence of bromides in the stagnant mass. It is one of a series of similar lakes that stretches away eastward into the regency of Tunis. The French have proposed to flood this region, which lies below the level of the sea, by cutting a canal from the Gulf of Gabés and thus create an inland sea in the Sahara; but its extent would not be great, and its utility would be most doubtful.

TO-DAY

TO-MORROW

We skirt for some miles the muddy shores of Shott Melrhir, then reach dry sand again, and finally halt for the night at the half-way station, where the realities of desert life again assert themselves. Unpromising indeed is this wayside restaurant in the Sahara. The advertisement of the establishment should read, "You bring the dinner, we do the rest." But fortunately we have brought a chicken—whose bones we leave to bleach upon the sand. The name of this place looks very simple when printed in black and white, but on being uttered by the natives with the correct Arabic pronunciation, it struck us