ich in the course of time have
covered the country with a perfect network of tracks.

Fezzan is divided into ten districts, of which the principal is
El-Hofrah, containing the capital, Mourzuk, and several smaller towns.
It is here and there besprinkled with beautiful gardens, in which are
cultivated, besides the date-palm, several of the choicest fruits that
grow on the coast--as figs, grapes, peaches, pomegranates, and melons.
In these gardens, as in most of the oases of the desert, the fruit trees
that require most protection from the sun are planted between the palms,
which make a kind of roof with their long leaves. Abd-el-Galeel
destroyed many of these groves to punish their owners, refractory to his
authority.

Two crops are obtained in the year: in the spring, barley and wheat are
reaped; and in the summer and autumn, Indian corn, ghaseb, and other
kinds of grain. All the culture is carried on by means of irrigation,
the water being thrown over the fields by means of runnels of various
dimensions twice in the day; that is, once early in the morning, and
once late in the afternoon until dark.

Wady Ghudwah is a single town with gardens, and the other features
common to all the Fezzan oases.

Sebha includes two towns, having a considerable population, with gardens
and date-palms.

Bouanees includes three towns, well peopled, and has immense numbers of
date-palms.

El-Jofrah contains the second capital or large town of the pashalic,
Sockna, built of stones and mud, with nine or ten smaller towns, all
tolerably populous.

Sockna is situated midway between Mourzuk and Tripoli, and is about
fourteen days from the former. The inhabitants are Moors, and, besides
Arabic, speak a Berber dialect. Sockna is celebrated for its fine sweet
dates, called kothraee; and there is abundance of every kind of this
fruit. A considerable quantity of grain is sown--wheat and barley--and
the gardens abound with peaches. The town of Honn, distant about two
hours from this place, is nearly as large, and also surrounded with
gardens.

Wady Gharby, and Es-Shaty, have already been described. In the sands
between these two places are situated the celebrated natron lakes, in
which that miraculous dud ("worm") spontaneously appears at certain
seasons of the year, and is eaten as people in Europe eat sardines--to
sharpen the appetite. The natron is also a source of profitable
exportation. Wady Sharky almost exactly resembles Wady Gharb