EL SIBHAH, OR THE SALT PLAIN.

AFRICA.

"He shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness; in a salt land, and not inhabited." JEREMIAH.

In that part of the Sahara which belongs to the Tuniseens, and usually called El Jereed, the Dry Country, is the Sibhah el Lowdeah, or Lake of Marks. This extensive plain, sixty miles in length by eighteen in breadth, derives its name from a number of palmtree trunks, that are placed at proper intervals to mark or direct the caravans in their transit, without which it would be difficult to escape the pits and quicksands that frequently occur. The Nefta and Tegewse shores are covered with date-trees, but these, are not distinguishable at a greater distance than thirteen miles, so that fatal deviations might be made in crossing, without the aid of marks, or index trees. El Sibhah, or the Salt Plain, is divided into sections, to which the adjoining districts lend their names; such are, Ghittah el Nefezowa, Jebel el Milah, Ghittah Amroon, and Ghedeer el Faraoon. The surface of the Sibhah is occasionally broken by small islets, or rather patches of dry land. One of these, in the meridian of Tellemeen, is supposed to be the Phla of Herodotus, and is also noticed by Scylax; it is a long, low stripe of land, clothed with datetrees, and is called by the natives El Tummer. There is a tradition preserved amongst the Arabs, that the date-tree was unknown here until Haraoon, with an army from the Bahr el Neel, conquered the country, and, cutting down the olive, substituted the date; other legends say, that his army having bivouacked on the island of El Tummer, near to the natural grotesque arches delineated in our view, a grove sprung up soon after. from the stones of the dates which formed part of the provender of the men.

Ancient geographers have distinguished the Sibhah into three separate parts, known by as many epithets. That which lies between Nefta and the Marks, was called Palus Libyæ; that situated between El Tummer and the Marks, Palus Pallas; and the eastern portion, Palus Tritonis. And here—that is, in the vicinity of this great phenomenon, the African Sibhah-Pallas, who, with her Libyan women, accompanied Sesostris in his Asian expedition, is supposed to have reigned, and hence to have deduced her origin. The ancients certainly affirm that the lake had communication with the Great Sea, and the Arabs still adhere to the tradition, but no appearance of any intercourse with the Mediterranean now exists.

Salt plains are of frequent occurrence in crossing the Tuniseen frontiers. As they are approached, indications of the ravages that salt commits on vegetation become more and more distinct, until all verdure gradually dies away, and barren sands succeed. This surface passes into a saline plain, covered with a thin layer of salt, but, growing