In the Nubian and Libyan deserts, to the east of the Sahara, the continent shelves down towards the Mediterranean in a series of terraces, consisting of vast level sandy or gravelly deserts, lying east and west, separated by low rocky ridges. This shelving country, which is only 540 feet above the sea at the distance of 750 miles inland, is cut transversely by the Nile, and by a deep furrow parallel to it, in which there is a long line of oases. This furrow, the Nile, and the Red Sea, nearly parallel to both, are flanked by rocky eminences which run north from the table-land. On the interminable sands and rocks of these deserts no animal—no insect—breaks the dread silence; not a tree nor a shrub is to be seen in this land without a shadow. In the glare of noon the air quivers with the heat reflected from the red sand, and in the night it is chilled under a clear sky sparkling with its host of stars. Strangely but beautifully contrasted with these scorched solitudes is the narrow valley of the Nile, threading the desert for 1000 miles in emerald green, with its blue waters foaming in rapids among wild rocks, or quietly spreading in a calm stream amidst fields of corn and the august monuments of past ages. At the distance of a few days’ journey west from the Nile, over a hideous flinty plain, lies the furrow already mentioned, trending to the north, and containing the oases of Darfour, Selime, the Great and Little Oases, and the parallel valleys of the Natron Lakes, and Bahr-Belama or the “Dry River.” The Great Oasis, or Oasis of Thebes, is 120 miles long and 4 or 5 broad; the Lesser Oasis, separated from it by 40 miles of desert, is of the same form. Both are rich in verdure and cultivation, with villages amid palm-groves and fruit-trees, mixed with the ruins of remote antiquity, offering scenes of peaceful and soft beauty contrasted with the surrounding gloom. The Natron Lakes are in the northern part of the Valley of Nitrùn, 35 miles west of the Nile; the southern part is a beautiful quiet spot, that became the retreat of Christian monks in the middle of the second century, and at one time contained 360 convents, of which 4 only remain; from these some very valuable manuscripts of old date have recently been obtained. Another line of oases runs along the latitude of Cairo, with fresh-water lakes—consequently no less fertile than the preceding. The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Ammon are in one of them.