ABSTRACT
Vansittart had only arrived at the Gulf of Gabes in the Seafarer, and he had at once ridden over to El Fejej, on the borders of the Shott, where Maclaren had established his permanent camp. It was his first sight of the road towards the Great Desert, and as the silent wastes unfolded their vast solemnity before him he realised how puny was his power in face of this majestic expanse of a ruined continent. Science told him that in every rock and in each separate particle of sand lay the open records of the ages, Here were the fossil remains of marine animals and plants; here were gaunt water courses which even yet became raging torrents when the too rare rain-clouds burst over the neighbouring heights; here was salt water beneath his very feet in gloomy and awesome caverns.
