The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Volume 25 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843 edition. Excerpt: ...of water. Many of these pools are some miles in extent. The surface of the marsh consists of alternate layers of incrustations of salt and of an alluvial deposit, and is entirely destitute of vegetation. In some parts small shells cover the surface, which renders it probable that the sea at times inundates the marsh. In the most level part of the marsh many places occur in which a solid crust, sometimes not more than two inches or an inch and a half in thickness, covers Jeep hollows, the lowest parts of which contain bitter and stinking water several feet deep. This circumstance renders the traversing of the marsh very dangerous. In this extensive tract of country the habitable ground is limited to two or three low hills, which rise within the marsh, and on which date-groves are met with, and to three or four places where the narrow tract along the sea is somewhat wider, and consists of high ground covered with grass and bushes, which afford pasture to sheep and camels. This is the worst part of Tripoli bordering on the sea. Delia Cella speaking of it, says, 'The country contiguous to this part of the Gulf of Sidra is fiat and very little raised above the level of the sea, and though the shores are lined with sandhills, they are for the most part shifting and frequently dispersed by hurricanes. In winter the waters of the sea are forcibly driven upon the African coast, and currents running from north to south greatly increase the water in the Gulf. I am disposed to think that under these circumstances the sea, breaking down the sandy ramparts upon the beach, spreads itself over the adjacent plains, and inundates a considerable tract of the country. Thence it happens, that the large pools of salt-water, although disunited in summer, form...