and grateful amidst the surrounding aridity. There are still remaining
many fruit-bearing date-trees--about seven thousand, scattered at great
distances. The water is good, although the surface of the valley is in
parts covered with a whitish crust of salt. Some large springs are
continually overflowing with bubbles of gas, like the great well of
Ghadamez.

In the garden-fields of Edree are cultivated wheat and barley, the
former white and of the finest quality. A good deal of grain has already
been got in this year. With industry, and a few more animals to draw the
water for irrigation, a great quantity of wheat might be grown in this
oasis. The gardens contain also a few figs and grapes. Doves were
fluttering in the branches of the palms, and swallows darting through
their waving foliage. There were thousands of native flies here, besides
those that had come with us. When we complained, we were answered, "This
is a country of dates!"

Shaty has eighteen districts, some very limited, but having date-palms,
and paying contributions to Mourzuk. Edree, itself, is drained of four
hundred mahboubs per annum.

_27th._--I rose at sunrise and went to see the ancient dwellings of
Edree, where the people lived underground: they are excavations out of
the rock, some fifty yards from the surface beneath the modern town. The
entrances are choked with sand, and they are not entered by the people,
who say "They are the abodes of serpents." At present, there is nothing
remarkable about them. Probably they were originally natural caves,
which were enlarged and arranged as dwellings.

On returning to the encampment, I found that the Kaïd, or commander of