17. AN ARTESIAN WELL (BORE NO. 39) 124 {BORE NO. 5 } 18.{ }142 {BORE NO. 14 } 19. LANDS UNDER RECLAMATION AT BORE NO. 39 156 20. AIN AMUR, ON THE UPPER DAKHLA ROAD 165 21. QASR LEBEKHA AND THE NORTHERN ESCARPMENT OF THE OASIS 169 22. RUINS AT UM EL DABADIB 172 {A STEAM BORING RIG } 23.{ }196 {A HAND BORING RIG } 24. A BELT OF DUNES NEAR QASR LEBEKHA 200 25. SAND EROSION ON SUMMIT OF JEBEL TARIF 206 26. THE CORPORATION’S HOMESTEAD (HEADQUARTERS) 208 27. DOUM-PALMS AT AIN GIRM MESHIM 218 {A WADI IN JEBEL TARIF } 28.{ }222 {A RIVER OF SAND NEAR UM EL DABADIB } MAPS AND SECTIONS I. THE CARAVAN ROUTES TO THE OASIS OF KHARGA 26 II. SKETCH-MAP SHOWING THE GEOLOGY AND THE ANCIENT LAKES 50 OF THE OASIS OF KHARGA III. GEOLOGICAL SECTION ACROSS THE OASIS, FROM JEBEL 56 TARIF TO THE EASTERN ESCARPMENT IV. THE SUBTERRANEAN AQUEDUCTS OF UM EL DABADIB 176 AN EGYPTIAN OASIS CHAPTER I THE LIBYAN DESERT AND ITS OASES Contrast of Libyan Desert and Nile Valley — Area and Geographical Position — Barrenness — Dunes and Sand-submerged Areas — Underlying Water-charged Sandstones — Early History of Oases — Condition in Prehistoric Times — Cultivated Lands and Wells. No more striking contrast can be imagined than that between the intensely cultivated Valley of the Nile and the barren deserts on either side. There are arid wastes in many parts of the world—in Australia, in the Western States of America, in Asia—but in point of desolateness, in the absence of animal and vegetable life, there is probably nothing to rival the greater portion of the Libyan Desert, on the west side of the Nile. Its barrenness is aggressive; it is not necessary to travel far to make its acquaintance; so sharp is the junction that, in a single step, one may pass from the richly cultivated alluvial soil of the Nile to the bare sandy plains which skirt the more rocky interior of the desert. Along the borders of the Egyptian wastes one generally looks in vain for the Persian poet’s “Strip of herbage strown, That just divides the desert from the sown.”