Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1884-06-26
THE GREAT DESERT.
A GRAPHIC PICTURE OF FEAR
Full SCENES IN SAHARA.

A traveller who hasJourneyed across
the great Sahara desert in Africa, thus
describes in the New Orleans Times the
terrible scenes that he witnessed: Rid
ing five hundred metres in advance of
our little troop, the horseman who acts
as guide directs our way over the dead
level of the dismal solitude. For the
last ten minutes he kept his horse at a
walk, sitting motionless in his saddle,
and singing in his own tonguea melan-
choly, long-drawn chant, with singular
tiles of Oriental rhyme. We initiate
his pace. Then all of a sudden he starts
off at trot, standing in his stirrups
erect, with his great burnous floating
behind him. And we all trot after
him, until he draws rein again to re-
commence agentler pace.
l ask my comrade:
GLOW can he guide us through these
naked wastes withouta a single mark to
show the way?'
But he answered:
"There are only the bones Of camels "
And in fact, every quarter of an
hour, we came across some enormous
bone gnawed by beasts, cooked by the
sun-all white, in strong relief against
the sand. Sometimes it was part of a
leg, sometimes part Of jaw, some
times a portion of the vertebral column.
The caravans leave behind them every
animal that cannot keep up; and the
jacksals do not carry all the remains
away.
And for several days we continued
this monotonous voyage, always in the
saddle, always behind the same Arab,
almost without speaking.
Now, one afternoon as we were ap-
preaching Bou-Saada, I saw, afar off,
before US, a great dark mass, made
larger by the mirage,-the form of
which astonished me. At our approach
two vutures flew away. 1t was car
cass, still Shiny in spite of the heat
glossy as though vanished, with putrid
blood. The chest alone remained; the
limbs had doubtless been torn off and
carried away by the voracious devour-
ers of the dead.
"Ah! There are travellers ahead of
us! !" said the lieutenant.
Some hours later we entered a ra-
vine, sort of defle, frightful fur
mace, bordered by huge rocks toothed
like saw - sharp, pointed, ragged,
rabid. in revolt, as if it were against
the implacably ferocious sky. Another
corpse was lying there. And a jackal
that had been devouring it fled away.
Then, as we passed out of the ra-
vine, gray large heap of something
before us moved; and slowly, at the
end of a disproportionately long neck, |
saw the head of an agonizing camel
rise up. lie was lying there - had
been lying for perhaps three or four
days - on his side, dying of fatigue aad
thirst. His long members, that seemed
inert, broken, all mixed up together,
were stretched upon the fiery soil. And,
hearing us coming, he had lifted up
his head, like lighthouse, His fole-
head. already gnawed by the sun, was
but one wound - great running
sore and his resigned gaze followed
US. He did not utter moan - did
not make the least effort to rise. One
would have thought, us he had seen so
many of his brothers die in their
long voyages through desolation. he
knew too well the mercilessness of man.
Now it was his turn - that was all
And we passed on.
Bnt when | looked back long, long
time afterward, ] saw still rising up
from the sand the lofty neck of the
Abandoned beast, watching to the end
the last living creatures he could ever
behold, passing beyond the horizon.
An hour later it was dog, crouch
ing close to a rock, with jaws wide
open and fangs glittering - incapable
of moving a paw - with eyes fixed up
on two vultures who sat not far off,
plnming themselves while waiting for
his death. He was SO possessed with
terror of those terribly patient birds,
waiting for his flesh, that he never
turned his head, and did not even feel
the stones that a saphi flung at him.
And, suddenly, at the outlet OF an
other defle, saw the oasis before me.
It was an apparation never to be for
gotten. One has traversed endless
plains, climbed mountains all craggy,
bald, calcined, without ever seeing a
tree, a plant, single green leaf; and,
10 - right before you, at your feet, is
ON nnanne mass of somhre yerdure -