Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-06-09
al Miscellaneous.
CROSSING THE ARABIAN DESERT.

Mr., Russell, the we'll known war correspond.
ent from The Crimeo, from India, aud from Italy,
Of the London Times, in his Diary Of India, gives
bic impressions Of tho Desert as follows;
The desert on which we dcbouched from the
rich oasis OF Cairo, even now q glorious mass of
green, resembles the bed Of soma deep sea not
level and smooth, but corrugated tossed into
mountains aud reefs Of sand, scanned with shullow
%rNvines, and inclOsing in the sweep Of the saId.
bills immense plaips, covered with q glistening,
even coat Of circular and oval stones, varying iu
size from a nine pound shot to a grcre. How they
shine in the sun flashing back its rays from their
polished sides, so that, at times, where the plain
stretches far away to the tumuli on the horizon, il
is scarce possible to believe that it is not q dane,
ing sparkling sea, which is bounding BY the side
Of the railway. This effect Is increased by The
waving lines of the rarifed air, which give to
the verge Of the great circle of desola,ion the APP.
pearnnce Of a rough and rapid tidcway. No pen
can describe. no pencil convey the real sentiment
Of the desert We watch with the proiOuadest
interest, a string Of camels, mere specs in the
distance, which, under the charge of two Arabs,
are blowing their way over the sand-hills toward
the horizon, on which stands a solitary date tree.
The sense Of indefinite space is first impressed on
one by that which is, we know, definite enough
IN a~ctuality. But, somehow or other, the sea is
bounded, 10 our notions. We see it marked out
in maps, and rounded off in terrestrial glubes,s so
that its vastness is destroyed but none of Us
Gao tell where this great desert ends, where are
its bounds, how far it pushes its sandy waves in.
TO the sandy heart Of tho continent. Sir Roder-
iok MuBchison m n Lnnu Rurtop N u ha ahla m
tell us all about it but it is not profitable to re-
movo the feeling of immensely. of vaguenoss, and
Of barren grandeur and primeval antiquity, which
is produced By the sight Of the desert where
on the Israelites wandered, and where the
legious tf Cambyses founded nameless cemeteries.
To me there is no sense CT barrenness produced
by the seattle deserts first effect is productive of
the sensation Of a world destroyed-of barrepness
waste, and lilelessness.
'Blanched bones of camels lie in dull waiteness
on the sands. Not a bird fans the hot, silent air.
Stones and sand, and sand and stones, are all
and everything and everywhere, stretched out dead
and hard under the blue sky and the relentless
sun. The rail which conveys us through this des-
olation is single, and the line is said, by English
engineers, to TO very badly made, as the French
eDRlue6EeY u idlu " Jul, tOOH ~ ONOt u AiNbS
100 feet high, instead of following a low level
near the river, which would have greatly dimin-
ished expense and cost Of working. The water
and coal for the engines has to be carried by the
trains out to the various stations. So they are
like commissariat animals in a barren country,
which have to carry their own fodder and dinin-
ish .heir public burthens. These stations are
helpless, hot, oven.like e~rections, generally eked
out by old Crimean wooden huts, within the shade
Of which may be seen an undoubted E~nglishman,
smoking his pipe. AT the fifth station we coaled;
the train ended in the desert here; but at long in
tervals, for miles in advance. we could see the en-
campments Of Arabs, who for the time had be-
come navies, and were engaged in picking and
burrowing and Blasting through the rocks a way
for the iron horse. In a long wooden shed-the
center of a group of tents-were laid out long ta-
bles, covered with hot joints of recondito animals,
papier-mache chickens, and Ignite vegetables.
This was our dinner-It had come all tho way
from Cairo-so had the wine and beer, and spirits.
If mama and quails we're at al eatable, we had
en- wed the food of the Israelites.