In the lowest spots the saline frequently consists of soft wet sludge; its area is about half a square kilometre but the depth of the deposit is unknown. In the middle of the scrub-covered area to the north lies Ain Warshat el Melh, a pool of water, fairly fresh and drinkable, although ferruginous, measuring 10 by 5 metres in size and from 2 to 2½ metres deep. The water evidently rises from a spring on the west side, round which are fifty square metres of green rushes, with some larger bushes. The ground around and above is very saliferous; between the spring and the ruins to the north the ground is sandy, with many bushes and much scrub. This ground extends two kilometres to the west, whence it gradually passes up into great masses of drift sand; an occasional small outcrop of the top of the plateau above the sand is all that serves to locate the position of the buried cliff. On the east side the sandy ground with scrub extends about a kilometre, beyond which the plain gradually rises for another kilometre to the base of the cliff beyond, which is fairly steep and well-marked, though with an entire absence of indentations of any kind. [Sidenote: Der el Galamûn.] Close to the north end of the valley, and about 33 kilometres from El Gayat, lie the ruins known as Der el Galamûn bil Muêla. At the time of our visit a new square stone building was in course of erection and five or six persons were inhabiting the place. There are several small palms scattered about to the south of the monastery and an excellent running spring of clear water five hundred paces to the south-west. A new well is being sunk within the premises. To the north of the monastery the eastern cliff takes a marked trend to the west for some three kilometres, whence it resumes a northerly direction, always maintaining its character of a steep well-marked escarpment rising some 100 metres above the floor of the wadi. At the corner of the cliffs the lowest bed exposed is a white limestone; this is overlain by gypseous clays passing up into sandy beds, the latter being surmounted by the white limestone capping the escarpment. [Sidenote: Wadi Rayan.]