The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1885-04-18
Waste Places Of the World.
III. Y. Snn.l

4H~ NNNSSaUA ~4pAN@SA AANJe -
sky said after his recent journey
in northern Thibet that an enorm-
Gus amount of animal life was sup
ported by the scanty heritage
growing on the bleak half sterile
plains that form the highest plateau
in the world, some $4,000 feet
above the sea. He said the wild
yaks there must number millions,
and that a full grown yak weighs
1000 to 1900 pounds. Natures
chemistry evolves these great
masses of flesh from the poor
heritage of q region SO lofty that
its lakes are frozen over until near
ly 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
dssolate parts Of the globe. 1t is
a mistake to suppose that the Sa.
hars desert is merely q useless
sandy waste. Much of it lacks
not so much cultivable land as in
dustrious hands to make the vas
expanse of withered oases 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 1t planted
its headquarters in the desert near
the western border Of Egypt, built
reservoirs, began plan tations,
erected converts, and now pop
ulation Of 5000 people live at
Jarabub, where the soil has been
restored to fertility by their labors.
There are large areas in the Sahara
that need only rain or irrigation to
cover them with verdure. Through
these regions pass the caravan
routes, along which $4,000 camels
engaged in the Sahara commerce
bear their burdens.
Mr.. Anderson. the civil engineer
who last year completed sixteen
years of explorations in South AT.
rica between the Orange and Zam-
besi Rivers, says, that the rain
that falls for q few weeks every
year in the great region known as
the Kalaha desert covers the black
ened verdureless plain with spen
did vegetation. Game is abundant
there, especially lions, leopardf
and ostriches and he has counted
in this desert twenty-five lions il
this region where only few Bush
men hunters live. Far northeast
Of them on the semi arid steppel
of Kordofan and Darfur millionl
of sheep and camels exist on thu
scanty pasturage of that deser
region.
The earliest Artic explorer
found in the little Spitzbergel
archepelago-wher it is believes
no human being had ever lived
herds of reindeer upturning th
snow with their hoofs and noses
to get at the lichens on which the
feed. Many reindeer live as ia
north as Littleton Island, and sey
eral scores of them were killed b.
the Haynes and Polarls exped
tions. Musk oxen, or their tracel
have been found along the shore
of the great frozen sea as far mort
as explorers have attained. Lock
wood, far north of the SUPPOSE
limits Of animal life, found trace
of this wonderful quadrupet
which grows fat on the tende
shoots of the Artic willow, an
plough up the snow for moss an
lichens.
OF all parts of the earth th
Antarctic regions along are con
paratively destitute of life. Fe'
species of living things in the VI
getablc or animal kingdom can ell
dure the rigor of the South Pola
region. No terrestrial quadrupe'
inhabits the land within the Antal
tic Circle, and whales and seal
are the only mammals that ente
its area. Summer in the Arti
regions, with its abundant life o
land and in the air and sea, pr,
sents an animated and cheerft
scene compared with the ute
desolation that reigns perpetual
in Antarctic waters.