The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-06-25
FABLES OF DESERTS.
SOME MISTAKES CORRECTED IN THE
LIGHT OF EXPERIENCE.


They Are had Enough, but Not So Bad as
Painted-The Fable of the Camers Water
Reservoir.
We owe the peculiar existing ideas OF the
nature of deserts and the supposed dangers
connected with journey across them TO the
notes OF the earlier travellers and explor-
ers Of the century. Renowned travellers,
such as Cassati, Rohlrs Lenz, Nachtlgal,
ETC., have in their various works and lee
lures tried in vain to throw the search
light of their experience on the prevalent
ideas OF these "fables of the desert" and
have shown citing their own experience
as guarantee for truth, that the greater
number of these so called dangers OF the
desert are mere pictures of imagination
and nothing else.
There are still great many people in
the world whose imagination brings be-
fore their minds eve the desert asa bound
less ocean Of sand, which the winds and
storms keep In constant turmoil, and
which create the so much dreaded, so
much heard Of sandstorms, which they
tell us at times bury whole caravans of
man and beast and wares beneath its un-
dulating, 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 desert of
deserts" and you find such an area situat-
ed west Of Egypt, geographically known
rs 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 tho scenery of the des
ert than tho groups of oases which bob up
from the plains here and there like green
islands IN all ocean.
And now to the sandstorms Is the
"samum," as IL is called, really poison
which brings destruction to man and
beastS Just as we discriminate between "a
wind and storm, just so the Sahara has
sand winds and sandstorms. Nachtigal,
the great explorer, relates that during n
visit at "Mursuk" the air was so filed
with sand and dust that everything on tho
oasis-the green in the gardens, the palms,
etc. was changed TO dirty grayish color,
and such veil of dust covered the heav-
ems that the sun appeared as mere white
spcck
This was the result Of a sand wind. The
'samum," or sandstorm, makes its APP
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 -feeliag befalls man HHd=beast, and
the camols become unruly. The camels
arc forced to lie down, their heads with
the wind. Men and women cover them
selves with their clothes, doing their best
to have their faces well concealed. Tho
"samum" generally lasts from 10 to 30
minutes and Is frequently accompanied by
very heavy rainfall.
A "samum" with such downpour was
encountered by Rohlfs on,lEaster Monday,
April l2, 1879 The air was leaden. The
wind changed 10 regular hurricane
Rohlfs had his tent, which was the largest
of the caravan, taken down and crawled
underneath the canvas, awaiting the
"brldo Of the desert" rs the Bodouin calls
the "samum." The storm became fiercer
and flercer, thick clouds of which you
could not tell were they sand or masses of
steam circled with terrific velocity over
the heads of the travellers A cannonade
of thunder vibratcd the earth Once in
awhile you heard the cracking Of n palm as
the storm broke it i'm two. Then the
storm lifted tho tent like n balloon, and,
to mako the confusion perfect, the rain
came down i'm such volume that n few
seconds suificod TO drench TO the skin
Then all of a sudden, rs IL by magic, it
became wonderfully still, and the glorious
sun appeared again In the purest and
bluest of ethers, and its powerful tropical
rays soon dried everything. Without n
doubt the "samum" IL one of the worst
plaques Of the desert IL weakens man and
beast, and the sand and dust which are
driven before it forsp their way through tho
smallest crevices and thickest covers and
permeate the mouth, nose and eyes but not
In such quantities that they cannot be got
rid Of with ease The very finest sand
even forces It's way into watches, but none
Of 10 will suffocate man or animal
A "samum" ever SO severe might cover
n whole caravan with heavy pail " dust
and sand but never throw up such noun
tsins Of sand as TO bury n whole caravan.
This Is only one Of the many fnbles Of the
desert. These sendstorms can, 10 Is true,
become dangerous 90 travellers, but In "A
| quite different manner The stock of wa
ter for caravan L. generally carried I'm
goatskips. ThsS are hot particularly good