Solidly-built rectangular mud-brick buildings are found alongside most of the larger wells in the Beris district, and a modern visitor would have some difficulty in guessing to what use they could ever have been put. They were, as a matter of fact, erected by the Egyptian Government during the time of the Dervish raids, to serve as block-houses for the garrisons maintained in the oasis for the purpose of protecting the wells and villages. During this period several notables and petty officials in this and the oasis of Dakhla were carried off by the Dervishes into captivity in the Sudan. Maks Bahari, the next place to the south, is a tiny little hamlet on the southern slope of a sandy eminence, with extensive clay lands studded with numerous doum-palms, but without water to irrigate more than a small portion of these. The village well is on the south side, and yields about 80 gallons per minute. As usual, it forms a pool contained by a bank, the latter being cut periodically to allow of the well being cleared of sediment. After the winter crops are harvested in the spring, it appears to be the general practice for the cultivators to pay special attention to their water-supply. The retaining banks are cut and the water allowed to drain off at the lowest level possible, the wells being sometimes left in this condition for several months, so that they gradually clean themselves with a minimum of trouble to their owners. The mud, exposed on the sides of the basin, continually slides downwards into the central pool, and is carried away in suspension by the outflowing water. Drift sand has been very destructive in the neighbourhood of Maks Bahari. At Ain Bella, 2½ kilometres to the N.N.W., there are at present only a few acres under cultivation, but the tract anciently tilled is seen in the eroded remnants of an alluvial platform to the north and north-east; this is now a deeply-grooved and ridged hummocky area of loam, full of dead palm-stubs, with rootlets ramifying in every direction. The original terrace appears to have extended far to the north, the portion now remaining being composed of alternating layers of sand and clay, dipping steeply to the south. At the present day many of the cultivated terraces are not only being gradually raised by the continual deposition of wind-borne materials, but are being extended horizontally, owing to the constant additions of layers of sand and clay-dust to the steeply-inclined southern or lee faces. In many respects the growth of these terraces is analogous to that of sand-dunes, though, unlike the latter, the northern portions of the terraces are practically stationary.