The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-20
FABLES OF The DESERT.
Popular FalIaCieS Refuted In the
Light Of Exploration.
sandstorms In the Sahara Not
Nearly So Bad AS Some People
Would Have Us Believe-Very often
Accompanied BY Rainfall.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch

} W. bfFD NhC pc lldE GAiSt1lE lucas VI luH
nature of deserts and the supposed ian
| gers connected with a journey across
them to the notes Of the earlier travellers
and explorers Of the century Renowned
| travellers, such as Cassati Rohlfs, LEM,
Nachtigal, etc, have in their various
works and lectures tried in vain to throw
the searchlignt of their experience on the
prevalent ideas, these Fables of the
! Desert, and have shown, citing their
! own experience as guarantee for truth,
! mat the greater nun Der Of these so-Called
! dangers Of the desert are mere pictures Of
imagination, and nothing else. | will try
TO enllghten the reader and dissect with
the sualpel of experience some of the
most known and interesting of these
fables.
There are still a great many people in
the world whose Imagination brings be-
fore their minds eye the desert as a
| Doundless ocean of sand, which the winds
| and storms keep in constant turmoil, and
winch create the so much dreaded. so
! much heard-of sand storms, which they
tell US at times bury whole caravans of
men and beast and wares beneath its un-
dulauDg cruel sands. How different is
the reality
Each desert, whether located in Africa,
Asia or America has within its bound
aries, without doubt, stretches of sand
large enough to be compared to an ocean
OF sand. Take the Sahara, for instance
which is correctly named the ''deserts of
deserts, and you find such an area stu
ated west of Egypt, geographically known
as the Lybian Desert: but every desert.
and the Sahara IN particular offers other
landscapes than this; enormous plateaus.
yes, even mountain chains, some of the
peaks rising to an altitude of 5000 feet,
can be found within its limits and give
far more variety to the scenery of the
desert than the groups of GASES which
bob up from the sand or rocky plains
here and there like green islands in an
ocean.
THE TRUTH ABOUT sANDsToRMs.
ON these pIaetaus we ind,stretches of
the stone desert which the Arabs call
"Hamada." Here you see to the limits
OF your horizon nothing but tremendous
vari-eolored and multi-shaped rocks and
bOwlders West to the ''Hamadas" we
come upon portion OF the Sahara which
for leagues and leagues is covered with
pebbles their sizes varying from a pea to
an English walnut. these are called in
Arabian "SSserir'' and one of the largest
of these was crossed by the African ex-
plorer Hohlfs in trying to reach the Oasis
of Rufra. 1t took him four days and ten
hours OF constant travel to accomplish
this.
And now to the sandstorms Is the
''samum," as it is called, really poison
which brings destruction to man and
beast?
Justas we discriminate between a wind
and storm, just so the Sahara has sand
winds and sandsIorms. Nachtigal. the
great explorer relates that during visit
at ''Mursuk' the~air was so filed with
sand and dust that everything on the
oasis, the green in the gardens. the
palms, etc, was changed to a dirty gray
1sh color, and such veil of dust covered
the heavens that the sun appeared as a
mere white speck. whose rays were so
broken that the entire surroundings were
in constant twilight.
This was the result of a sandwlnd The
'samum," or sands torn, makes its ap-
pearance in quite different manner.
About an hour, or even more, before it
reaches you heavy yellow clouds of sand
appear on the horizon. The atmosphere
is heavy and charged with electricity.
A tired feeling befalls man and beast.
and the Camels become unruly. The
camels are forced to lie down, with their
heads with the wind. Men and women
cover themselves with their clothes. doing
their best to have their faces well-con-
cealed The "Samum'" generally lasts
from 10 to 30 minutes, and is frequently
y
A ''samum" with such downpour was
encountered by kohlfs on Easter Mon
day, April ~, 1879. The air was leaden.
The wind changed to a regular hurricane.
Rohlfs had his tent, which was the larg-
est o. the caravans, taken down and
crawled, underneath the canvas, awaiting
the bride of the desert as the Bedouin
calls the .'samum." The storm became
tercer and tiercer thick clouds of which
you could not tell were they sand or
masses OF steamscircled with terrific We
locity over the heads of the travellers a
cannouade of thunder vibrated the earth.
Once in awhile you heard the cracking of
a palm as the storm broke it in two.
Then the storm lifted the tent like bal
loon, and To make the confusion perfect
the rain came down in such volume that
a few seconds suttced to drench to the
skin.
wEAKENs MEN AND BEAST,
Then all of a sudden. as if by magic. it
became wonderfully still and the glorious
sun appeared again in the purest and
bluest of others, and its powerful, tropical
rays soon dried everything. Without
doubt the ''samumn is one of the worst
plaques OF the desert; it weakeus man
and beast, and the sand and dust whichis
driven before it forces its way through
the smallest crevices and thickest covers
anu POI AlGulGS LlOulll, ilOSC anu eyes, DuJ
not in such quantities that it cannot be
gotten rid of with the greatest ease The
very finest sand even forces its way into
watches but none of it will SURROGATE
man or animal.
"A samum ever so severe might cover
whole caravan with heavy pail of dust
and sand, but never throw up such noun
tains OF sand as to bury whole caravan
This is only one OF the many fables of the
desert. These sandstorms can, it is true
become dangerous to travellers. but in a
quite different manner. The stock of
water for caravan is generally carried
In goat skins. They are not particularly
good reservoirs, however, for they soon
allow an enormous quantity of their con
tents to eVaporate, a result of the extra
ordinary heat sandstone brings with it,
This evaporation now and then, takes
such proportions that a whole caravan
might die of thirst especially when the
hot sandstorm has dried upall the springs
and pools on the way.
The air Of the Sahara is at times so dry
that when rain clouds come up from the
distance the rain cannot fall to the
ground, as it already evaporates in mid
air, which phenomenon is accompanied
by peculiar mixes in the atmosphere. A
"samum' has been known to reach a
temperature of l25' to 1882 Fahrenheit in