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[Page 2]
crossed the Natron Valley ([indecipherable] Natron) at 38 or 40 G Miles West as I conceivd (for no bearings are given) from Cairo, & a few hours afterwards the great bed of the Basarbala Ma, but it being dark he could only discover that it was a hollow tract. You know well the position of the Natron Lakes to the West of Terane. Andreass a French General of Artillery visited the same spot, & in the French Decadas publishd at Cairo, he gives a very particular description of what he saw (probably you may have seen it, but I shall speak as if you may not) accompanied with a Map. He says then that the Bollabula ma is separated from the Natron Valley by a very narrow ridge only, & that the two hollows run together in two parallel lines for about 30 to 40 G M from the N N W to S S E. If Hornemans Route was westerly as we suppose he must have crossed the Hollows at no great distance from the South of the extreme part seen by Andreass: but It gives no particulars. And I reckon the B B M three french leagues in breadth, the Natron Valley about 2/3 of that breadth. He is silent with respect to the depth of the B B a particular of some consequence, but he remarks that the western side of it is renderd much shallower by the Sand that is continually driving Eastward from the Desert.
Here it appears that we are left in doubt, respecting the origin & termination of this remarkable hollow or hollows, & the knowledge of which would add greatly to the information respecting the Geology of Egypt. It should be added that And.s found petrified wood of large size in the B B as Horneman did in the Desert adjoining in the W. The French it appears from And.s have never been able to determine this matter of the origin or termn. altho so very curious a question. And in his dissertation says that "the Wandering Arabs ascend it in their incursions towards Upper Egypt" & he is very sanguine in his expectations, that it originates at the Lake Moeris & terminates in the Gulph of the Arabs. From what you saw of this Lake you must be able to judge how far it is probable & as Horneman traced a Valley or hollow from his station beyond the Natron Valley Westward, for several days' journey, it is possible that it may either communicate with the B B or be the very B B itself, taking a Westerly course along the foot of the Hills that join to those of Um Sogeir. If you could determine this question it would make a very conspicuous feature in the Physical Geography of Egypt & would prove that you could do more than all the French Scavans.
The Natron Valley is also to be disposd of (I should have told you that And.s also says that he found Pebbles & the petrified Vertebræ of a large Fish in the bottom of the Balabula Ma) Altogether if the subject could be pursued