Captain Roudaire was sent in the following year to continue his investigations in the Regency of Tunis, and he reports that two other basins there are capable of submersion; namely, that of the Chott el-Gharsa, the superficies of which is 1,350 square kilometres, and that of the Chott el-Djerid, which has a surface of 5,000 square kilometres.
Whether the scheme prove practicable or not, Captain Roudaire has certainly collected a considerable body of evidence[271] to prove that the basin of the Chotts was in communication with the Mediterranean as late as the beginning of the Christian era, and then formed the great bay of Triton; and he believes that the result of his surveys and levels entirely confirm this hypothesis. He quotes all the ancient authors who have alluded to the locality; amongst others, Herodotus, who mentions ‘the river Triton, which flows into the great lake or gulf of Triton, in which is the island of Phla.’ Scylax, who wrote his Periplus of the Mediterranean in the second century before Christ, also alludes to both river and lake. ‘The entrance to the latter,’ he says, ‘is narrow, and an islet is visible therein at low tide, and vessels are often unable to enter.’ Pomponius Mela, two centuries after Scylax, and Ptolemy, in the second century of the Christian era, also mention the same natural features.
The Arabs have a tradition that Nefta was at one time a seaport, and it is said that no later than the end of last century a vessel of unknown form, probably an ancient galley, was dug up in the sand there.
Unfortunately, the most eminent authorities do not agree as to the possibility of the project. Captain Mouchez, of the French Navy, a very distinguished hydrographer, and a Member of the Institute, surveyed the coast from Algeria to Tripoli in 1876. He states that the coast of the Gulf of Gabes is formed by a natural bulwark 85 mètres high at the sea, and rising to a height of 700 or 800 mètres further inland. If these measurements are correct, and no breach of continuity exists in this chain of hills, it is difficult to see how there could ever have been a communication between the sea and Lake Tritonis, or how a canal can now be cut so as to unite them.
Three miles S.E. of Gabbs is a small village called Tobulbu, with a plantation of dates; four miles further in the same direction another called Zereega. About . . .[272] miles hence, still eastward, inclining to the south, is Cattan,[273] another; and further is the river el-Fert,[274] which comes from below the river Matamata. At the head it is fresh, but receiving some salt springs in its course, it turns brackish where it falls into the sea.
Zaratt is 18 miles from Gabbs; and from Gerba, which lies S.E., as Matamata does . . .[275] and Dimmer . . .[275] S.W. by S., and El-Faggera, behind which is Jibbel Abeide, due south; over this lies the way to Gaddems, according to some, eight days’ journey for a camel lightly laden; that is, from Gabbs to Matamata, 22 miles, or one day; thence to Jibbel Abeide, two days, or 40 miles; from thence five days, but it is said by others to be much longer.
The inhabitants of Matamata live underground in the earth; their houses go down with a stair about . . .[276] feet; from thence there is a passage, on each side of which are the chambers. The inhabitants of Jibbel Abeide are the Dowarets, a clan of about 1,000 fighting men. Their houses are not sunk in the earth, as the Matamata, but perforated in the rock itself, like the Trogloditæ of old.
Mela says that they lived in caves, and fed upon serpents; if he had said fed together with serpents, his observation had been just. They have such an esteem for snakes as to suffer them to feed promiscuously with them, and to live continually in their houses, where they perform the office of cats. These animals are perfectly inoffensive to their protectors, and suffer themselves to be lifted up and carried in their hands from place to place. Some are six or seven feet long; they suffer no one to hurt them or transport them to any other place. No persuasion or reward could induce them to let me carry away one of them, it being universally believed that they are a kind of good angels, whom it would be the highest impropriety, and of the worst consequence to the community, to remove from their dwellings.
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The Jibbeleah runs in a direction parallel to the coast, which it approaches as we advance eastward to Zarratt. Matamata is S.E. of Gabbs. South of that is Toujan; S.E. is a sharp-pointed mountain called Dimmer; again, continuing the line of Matamata eastwards, is Feggera, due south from Gerba.