The morning call., 1893-01-07
THE SAHARA AS 1T Is.
In Winter the General Surface of the
Dacarf lie Cnuarad With Green


Desert Is Covered With Green.
H. Michel In the New England Magazine
The general idea of the Sahara is that
1t is en- immense plain of shifting
sand. entirely unin habitable; but although
this region is the widest of an immense
belt of deserts, it supports a population.
settled or nomadic. of about 100000. the
settled population being distributed over
125 GASES. We understand by cases every
town or city generally surrounded by belt
of vegetation. AS to the domest vegeta-
ton, 1t may be reckoned Mt &c. CO., 00U palms
and 100000 fruit-bearing trees of other
varieties. However, probably pot mora
than one three-huBdredth of its whole sur
face is inhabited or cultivated.
The most i'm portant of the trees growing
are the Acacia Arabics. two species OF tam
arlsk, the pistacl0, the lotus and few
whose leaves furnish fodder for cattle.
The luxuriance of many GASES is generally
contrasted with the barrenness of the deS-
ert. But however barren De the rugged
waste in summer. so rich Is its soil that the
day following rainfall wild grass is OBJ
served growing, especially in the depreS-
sions. but that frail vegetation which
springs up with the sunshine of to-day is
scorched by the sunshine OF tomorrow.
|. However, the general surface of the Sahara,
so parched and fiery in summer, wears a
mantle OF green on all places uncovered by
ard sand after the first autumnal rainfall.
1t preserves its green aspect during all the
winter, and from that verdure the Bedouins,
those traditional shepherds OF the desert,
derive their one means of life, the food for
their numerous herds of cattle, the only
thing which that immense waste affords to
humanity.
In May the burning sun scorches the wild
grass, rain no longer enriches the soil, and
as result The Bedouins are compelled to
drive northward and sell the greater part of
their cattle, with which They supply the
markets of Morocco. Algeria. Tunis, Tripoli
and many of Europe
The strong saline quality of the water
found underground, the presence OF fossils
and shells belonging to strictly marine fam
lilies, the character of the tertiary strata
and the f1atness and sandiness of the soil
are strong evidence for the theory that the
Sahara was formerly the bottom of an In
land sea.
Its conformation is convex in the center,
rising about 1000 feet above the sea and
sloping northwardly and soutbwardly i'll
gentle gradient. All its confines are barred
by mountains or prominent lands. and its
level averages loco ieet higher than the outly
ing seas, whence we conjecture that the wat
ers closed ON all sides sta grated, untlit is mid
most crust heaved ur. when they flowed of
southwark through the Niger to Timbuctoo
and northward9hrOugh the Gulf of GabeS.
ne How ufleu-up Nauy maSsdufd, whose
bed forms an uninterrupted channel
through almost the entire Sahara from
Twat 10 Timbuctoo. where once it prob
ably joined the n ger, seems to give weight
to this hypothesis, as 1t ap ears perfectly
logical that that river drained the last
remaining water
The physical confguration of the general
surface exhibits also many diversified fea-
lures. Raised mountain regions, rocky hills
OF granite, sandstone, limestone or gypsum !;
deep ravines. breaking into huge cliffs !;
vast depreSsions of land and broad valleys,
forming temporary lakes when rain is
abundant; immense barren plains of sandy,
pebbly or hard soil, intersected by beds Of
former rivers; large tracts of sand hills,
rising to considerable proportions, form the
character of the face of the Sahara.