It seems probable that at no very distant period, as time is measured by geologists, the shats formed an arm of the Mediterranean, for, as has already been remarked, they are several feet below its level, and shell-fossils in great quantities have been found in them. Unfed by tributary rivers, this inlet gradually contracted and silted up. Meantime the sand-banks extended across its mouth until they joined, whereupon, cut off altogether from the sea, the waters rapidly evaporated under the fierce African sun, leaving the chain of saucer-like depressions which we see to-day. Confirmation of this theory is found in the legend which exists among the desert tribes, of a sea, with ports and ships, which once stretched across the northern end of the Sahara from the shores of the Syrtes to the foot of the Aurés; this Arab legend is corroborated by Greek myth; and support is lent to both by the findings of the scientists. By some authorities this one-time Saharan sea has been identified with the semi-mythical Lake Tritonis, in whose foul depths dwelt the old sea-god Triton, who, it will be remembered, befriended Jason and his Argonauts. According to Greek mythology, the _Argo_, while on her homeward voyage from Colchis, was driven south by unfavorable winds to the coast of Libya, the little vessel eventually becoming entangled in the ooze of an inland sea. Here the Hellenic adventurers were entertained for a time by certain alluring nymphs of the neighborhood—ancestresses, no doubt, of those whom I saw disporting themselves in the pool at El Hamma—but were rescued by Triton, the patron deity of seafarers, who guided them to the open sea again. Merely a fable, you say? Well, perhaps. But don’t be too certain. For, when you stop to think about it, there is nothing inherently improbable in the narrative that has been handed down to us of the wanderings of a Hellenic sea-adventurer named Jason, who, with an equally adventurous crew, set out from Greece in quest of gold (the ancients were accustomed to gather alluvial gold in sheep-skins; hence, the Golden Fleece), just as the Argonauts of a later day set out for the gold-fields of California. Their frail craft driven from its course by a Mediterranean norther, the exhausted mariners eagerly availed themselves of the shelter offered by an arm of the sea which opened from the Syrtis Minor, now known as the Gulf of Gabés; but the waters grew shallower as they sailed eastward, the sand-bars more frequent, and finally the _Argo_ went hard and fast aground. This much being admitted, surely it is quite within the bounds of probability that some wild-looking native fisherman, bearing the three-pronged fish-spear, or trident, which has always been associated with the sea-god, and which is commonly used in those parts to-day, offered his services as a pilot and helped them out of their difficulties. The truth of the matter is that most of the Greek myths, when stripped of the fanciful embroideries