The Opelousas courier., 1885-05-02
Exploration
WASTE PLACES OF THE WORLD.

The Russian explorer Preje-
palsky said after his recent jour-
nay III Northern Thibet that an
enormous amount of animal
life was supported by the scanty
herbage growing on these bleak,
h~alf.sterile plains that form the
highest plateau in the world,
some 1900 feet above the sea.
he said the wild yaks there
must number millions, and that.
4 full-grown yak weighs from
1000 to 1900 pounds. Natures
chemistry evolves these great
masses of flesh from the poor
heritage of d region SO lofty
that its lakes are frozen over un-
til nearly June, though they are
600 miles nearer the equator
than we are.
Explorers tell us that not only
does animal life abound, but
that man can live in some of
the most desolate parts of the
globe. 1t is a mistake to sup
pose that the Sahara Desert is
merely a useless, sandy waste.
Much of it lacks not SO much
cuItivable land as industrious
hands to make the vast exnanse
of withered
GASES BLOSSOM AGAIN.
The Mussulman sect known as
the Senousians has for years
been digging wells, irrigating
the land, and turning many
hundreds of barren acres into
gardens. Twenty-four years ago
It planted its headquarters in
the desert, near the western bor-
der of Egypt, built reservoirs,
and now a population of eight
thousand people live at Jara-
bub, where the soil has been re-
stored to fertility by their la
bors. There are large areas in
the Sahara that need only rain
oil irrigation to cover them with
verdure. Through these regions
pass the caravan routes, along
which the fifty thousand camels
engaged in the Saharian com
merce bear their burdens.
Mr. Anderson, the civil engin-
eer who last year completed six
teen years of explorations in
South Africa, between the
Orange and Lambesi rivers,
says that the rain that falls for
d few weeks every year in the
great region known us the Kali
ahara desert covers the blacken-
"a, yendureless plain with splen-
did vegetation. Game is abund-
INT there, especially lions, Loop
ards and ostriches, and he has
counted in this desert
TWENTY-FIVE LIONS
iii d troop, and has seen two
hundred ostriches in one flock.
Beasts and birds find sustenance
id this region where only a few
bushman hunters live. Ear
northeast Of them on the semi
arid steppes of Kordofan and
Darfur millions of sheep and
carnels exist on the scanty. pas
tufage of that desert region.
The earliest Arctic explorers
found III the little Spitzbergen
archipelago-Where, it is be-
Ieved, no human being had
Ived-herds of reindeer up
urning the snow with their
boots and noses to get at the
lichelss on which they fed. Many
Miudser live dis far north as Lit
aeton Island, and several score
hgm were killed by the Hayes
nal Polaris eexpditions. Musk
xeB, or their traces, have been
IbEnd along the shores Of the
great frozen sea as far north as
explorers have attained. Gcok-
wood, far north of the supposed
LIMITS OF ANIMAL LIFE,
found traces of this wonderful
Quadruped. which grows fat OIL
the tender shoots of the Arctic
willow, aud plows mp the snow
for moss and lichens.
Of all parts Of the earth, the
Antarctic regions alone are COM
paratively destitute of life. Few
species of living things il the
vegetable or animal kingdom
can endure the rigor Of the
south polar region. No terres-
trial MISUNDERSTANDING the land
within the Antarctic circle, and
whales and seals are the only
animals that enter its area.
simmer iii the Arctic regions,
with its abundant life on land
and ID the air and sea, presents
a1 animated and cheerful scene
pared with the utter desola-
StHN that rninnS pAruaE1alfN in