pounds of coffee, and four heads of loaf sugar.  This was the first considerable present I made.  In the evening we observed Mercury in conjunction with Venus.  The heavens were unusually bright for Mourzuk.  We saw also Jupiter’s satellites at seven in the evening.  The two upper ones were much nearer than the two lower ones to the great planet, but all in a line.  Mars was very bright.  The rings, or extinct volcanoes of the moon, were also truly transparent this evening.  Usually the sky of Mourzuk is charged with a dirty red haze, and not at all favourable to astronomical observations.

21st.—­The culture of water-melons is progressing for the summer season.  The melons are planted in the irrigation ducts that lead to the squares of clover, which is cultivated at this season for the horses of the cavalry stationed here, and also for the camels of the merchants.  Every fifteen or twenty days a fresh crop is ready, all produced by irrigation.

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