The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-02-13
CROSSING THE DESERT.

had refused to hold them and been doomed
for its rebellion never more to know the
blessing of its cooling and life-preserving
presence. The ancients imagined that the
desert was formed by wind spreading sand
over the cultivated SOIL and that the oases
were spots Of greater elevation and thus
escaped, as the kuols are swept bare of
snow which the drifting storm deposits in
the low places. But instead of being higher
than the surrounding surface, the oases are
depressions, and are of such geological
formation that the water from some hidden
spring is retained, and a verdure nourished
which has won for them from the desert
travellers the name of Islands of the Blessed.
Were it not for these resting-places it
would be impossible to traverse the desert
even with the aid of an animal SO wonder
fully adapted to endure the peculiar
hardships, as is the camel. Supplied by
nature with wonderful store-places for
food and drink it can subsst for long
time with but very slight nourishment The
hump which we in our childhood days
imagined was especially provided to afford
seat for the rider, is reservoir of fat
from which the camel draws nourishment,
80 that sometimes when the animal comes
in from a long journey, the humps greatly
diminished. The countries adjoining the
desert are almost as eflectually separated as
if sea rolled between, and were it not
for this "Ship ofthe Desert" as the poetical
Arabs call it, the separation would be
greater. The desert is the camefs home,
he can eat the scanty herbage that springs
up here and there, and which no other
creature wonld deign to touch. His foot
is 50 adapted to the sandy ground that he
can travel without difficulty where horse
would fall exhausted on the yielding soil,
before half his days journey was accom-
plished. But stranger still is the wonder
full provision which enables these patient
creatures to toll beneath the burning sun
for days without drinking. They have
been used in explorations in New Mexico
and California, and the commander of one
expedition testifies that the camels have
carried water for the mules used by the
men sometimes for more than week with
out tasting it themselves.
The general ignorance concerning the
whole continent of Africa and especially
the desert portion of it, has afforded strong
temptation to such as have penetrated into
its secrets to exaggerate them, and as we
are becoming better informed, some of the
traditions of the past are losing their terror.
Desert journeys are certainly not luxurious
ly comfortable, but they are probably at
tended with no severer suffering than has
been experienced in mountain climbing.
But men are less inclined to defy obstacles
under a scorchiug sun whose enervating
rays, reflected from the burning sand, ac-
quire terrible power, than amid cold and
bracing atmosphere.
Monsieur Pouchet graphically describes
his approach to one of the deserts of upper
Egypt ....
"The eye only sees an unbroken sheet of
of burning sand. And yet upon its borders
found, having the heat of the sun, and
never refreshed by a single drop of rain,
numerous tufts of an asclepiad, the large,
moist, velvety leaves of which glistened
with freshness 1t was an inexplicable
problem. But this last effort of life soon
disappears, and we see before us only an
ocean of sand and horizon of death. Not
cry, not murmur is heard, and scarce
even lettering vulture devours the last
fragments of some camel which has fallen
on the sand, and the bleached skeleton of
which will soon be added to so many others
now marking out the desert routes. Not
cloud furnishes the azure of the sky, not
breath refreshes the air; sun, the ardor
Of which nothing moderates, pours down
its sparkling light and fiery rays, burning
even through ones clothes. The motion
less and heated atmosphere tortures the
face with its fiery breath, and even the
sand attains an extreme heat. My ther-
mometers being broken, tried to ascertain
the temperature by plunging my hands into
the superficial layers, but at the end of a
few seconds stinging pain compelled me
to withdraw them. The soil also, by re-
Aecting the solar rays from the sparkling
fragments Of mica and quartz, sometimes
becomes insupportably dazzling to the eye.
/" Instead Of the rolling waves and the
cool breezes of the sea, this funeral region
only gives out burning gusts and scorching
blasts which seem to issue from the gates of
hell; these are the sinoom or poison wind,
as the word signifies in Arabic The camel
driver knows this formidable enemy, and as
aOon as ha aaaa n loou,in,, T., Az i,...ia..