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ἁλὸς μέταλλον. H. knows the coast extends beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. His symmetry has such a hold of him that he projects his scheme of decimally recurring oases far beyond his real knowledge, over the whole sand ridge to the Atlantic. Others, e. g. Bähr, think the words ἔστι δὲ . . . οἰκέοντες refer to one more oasis ten days west of the Atlantes; the singular, μέταλλον, favours this view, but it is less probable as a whole. In either case, the ἁλὸς μέταλλον here = the ἁλὸς κολωνός (sup.).
οἰκία. Houses of salt are still found in North Africa, cf. J. Hamilton (‘Wanderings’, 1856, p. 294); he, like H., accounts for the use of this material by the rainless climate. Shaw (i. 250) speaks of houses washed down by rain. Rohlfs (K. 269) actually advises travellers to provide themselves with water ‘to open graves’ built of ‘Erdsalzklumpen’. The varying colour of the salt, purple, white, and blue, is also confirmed by modern travellers, e. g. Shaw (i. 271), speaking of a mountain in Tunis, near the lake of Marks. Rain apparently does fall at intervals of five years or more, but Humboldt (Aspects of Nature, p. 3) gives the same sweeping denial as H., ‘neither dew nor rain bathe these desolate plains’ (in North Africa).
ἔρημος κτλ. The accumulation of adjectives well expresses the vastness of the Sahara, although (literally speaking) ‘water, wood, and animal life’ are found in parts of it.
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