The stratification or lay of these stones is perfectly horizontal,
but often disturbed; parts of the first layer sinking into and mixing
with the second below, and the second with the third. Sometimes
the strata take an oblique direction; sometimes are promiscuously
confused, and sometimes no strata appear at a ll; and a series of low
hills is formed of one solid mass of rock, with fissures in direction
to the north. The plain too shews occasionally level rock of the
like nature and substance, in parts where bare of sand or soil. The
whole of this region of hillocks, hills, rocks, and mountains, is, in
parts, intersected by vales, occasionally having water; and though
the soil is of white sand, yet it is so far fertile as to produce single
trees, and pasturage for beasts; in these productive spots are frequently
to be seen the tracks and slots of game. Often, when I
thought I could so do without danger of losing my way, I struck
into one of-the narrow vales running apparently in the same direction
as our caravan road; and occasionally led away to defiles
becoming more narrow and rugged, I repented my indiscretion,
whilst thus separated from my company, and exposed to attack
from Bedouins, with dependence for safety on my single sabre and
pistols. On regaining the caravan, it yet occurred that my danger
had not been great, for what Arab robber could look for a traveller
in such a tract, or suppose any hardy enough to wander therein
from his troop, excepting, indeed, some wretched Moroccan pilgrim
jn search of water!
In the course of these excursions, on the side of one of these
narrow vales, winding among the mountains, I observed a narrow
branch or inlet, towards the termination of which the rocky heights
from each side closed, and formed a cavern of about nine feet deep,
and five feet wide; and, considering its appearance and situation in
this desolate, obscure, and mournful region, I was inspired with
feelings, as on viewing the entrance to the subterraneous world, and
very passage, ad inferos.
My interpreter told me, that at some time when I had taken
another path, and when the caravan was travelling about midway
through the mountains, he saw a cavern in which the stones to a
considerable depth were black, and that under these lay a stratum
of white stones. On travelling afterwards from Fezzan to Tripoly,
in Continuation of the Harutsch, (as I supposed it), I myself observed
ranges of basaltic hills, alternate with ranges of calcareous hills,
My interpreter brought me a specimen of the white stone taken
from the cave himself had seen, but I think was not happy in its
selection, it consisting of a mere lump of indurated argillaceous
earth, such as often adheres to limestone.
In respect to the many hills, and their curious ranges and direction,
the Harutsch exhibits a similitude to the excrescences on the
bordering mountains I refer to in a subsequent journey; it agrees
too in the circumstance of single stones scattered on the surface,
which, in the Harutsch, are distinguished as being only of one
species or substance, peculiar to the district. There is too a further
analogy in the plains formed of bare rock; and in the white quicksand
covering other levels, and laying round the mountains, and up
their base, though to no considerable height*
Contiguous to the Harutsch-el-assuat, or blaek Harutsch, lies
the white Harutsch, or Harutscb-el-abiat. The country denoted by
this appellation is a vast plain, interspersed with mounds or isolated
hills, and spreads to the mountains rising towards Fezzan. The
stones covering the surface of this plain have the appearance of being
glazed, and so too every other substance, and even the rocks
H a