The fig-tree is found frequently in the gardens of Fezzan, and when planted near a well, produces as fine fruit as those on the coast. The rich green of its leaves is very refreshing to the eye. During the present season, however, the greater portion of the gardens is devoted to onion-raising. Whole fields are covered with this vegetable. Parsley is running to seed. The korna is also seen in the suburbs. Few birds visit the gardens of Fezzan, which are all planted with palms. One or two groves have been recently added, and are distinguished as the "new trees." The irrigated beds are covered with palm-shoots, the curving fan-like leaves bending prettily over the ground. The winnowing of grain is conducted in the most slovenly manner. The ripe ears with the dry stalks are thrown on the sand, and then half-a-dozen donkeys are driven over them--an animated threshing machine. The grain, of course, mixes with the sand, and is separated from it with considerable loss and waste of time. The sandy soil of the gardens is sometimes mixed with a large quantity of salt, which gives it a firm consistence. Of this soil the houses of the city are built. Rain would melt them; but this blessing never cools the scorching atmosphere of Mourzuk.[4] [4] Showers of rain are subsequently mentioned, however; and it is a mistake to suppose that the hard blocks of fossil-salt mixed with earth, of which the houses in the oases of Northern Africa are often built, can be so easily melted down.--ED. In this day's agricultural and horticultural walk I fell in with the nymphs of the gardens; or, in other words, the washerwomen of Mourzuk. They come out constantly to the wells, when the irrigation is going on, early in the morning or late in the evening, and thus take advantage of the supply of water raised. They are all dark women of the city, for the most part unlovely and very dirty in appearance, despite their occupation. Their system of washing is the primitive one practised by the labouring classes all over the north of Africa. They roll up the clothes into a round flat heap, and then with their heels keep up a continual round of treading, using for soap a peculiar sort of clay. Some of the girls are very impudent and immodest when a stranger passes by; but as a rule they are not so. The wells at Mourzuk are not all good; some are fresh, others salt. In many places will be found a well of very sweet, delicious water; and running nearly to the surface, at twenty paces distant from it, are found others really quite salt. The same phenomenon has been observed at Siwah, in the Libyan desert. One of our party received a present this morning of some fresh and most delicious leghma. A good deal is drunk in Mourzuk, in an acrid state, for the purposes of intoxication.