Immense deserts, sometimes perfectly arid, but at others slightly
sprinkled with herbage, separate these valleys; and are periodically
traversed by caravans, great and small, which in the course of time have
covered the country with a perfect network of tracks.
Fezzan is divided into ten districts, of which the principal is
El-Hofrah, containing the capital, Mourzuk, and several smaller towns.
It is here and there besprinkled with beautiful gardens, in which are
cultivated, besides the date-palm, several of the choicest fruits that
grow on the coast--as figs, grapes, peaches, pomegranates, and melons.
In these gardens, as in most of the oases of the desert, the fruit trees
that require most protection from the sun are planted between the palms,
which make a kind of roof with their long leaves. Abd-el-Galeel
destroyed many of these groves to punish their owners, refractory to his
authority.
Two crops are obtained in the year: in the spring, barley and wheat are
reaped; and in the summer and autumn, Indian corn, ghaseb, and other
kinds of grain. All the culture is carried on by means of irrigation,
the water being thrown over the fields by means of runnels of various
dimensions twice in the day; that is, once early in the morning, and
once late in the afternoon until dark.
Wady Ghudwah is a single town with gardens, and the other features
common to all the Fezzan oases.
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