The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-08
IN THE SAHARA DESERT.
The Two Phases of the Desert-Veg-
citation in the Sahara.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
AS the iron horse hurrles through the
final break in the Atlas mountains all eyes
are instinctively turned in the direction of
the desert. The poetry of travel is now
presumably to be turned into prose- the
soft and smiling picture of nature into that
hard ruggeGness which speaks of a land
scape not yet finished. And yet, the first
view of the desert is that of one of its GA
sis, and of one which is very nearly the
fairest of them all; for it receives the cool
ness of the north as well as the heat from
the south and the stream that carries the
luxury of growth into its deeper recesses
has not yet been Slapped of it's vitality by
a continuous summer heat.
Long before we reach the fine gardens
of El-kantara we are in the desert. Giant
rocks, burned brown and red under the
glow of the southern sum- stand out in
wild pinnacles from the gently undulating
surface, their ragged sides buried deep
in the sand which they themselves have
made. This is not the desert that is ordi-
narily pictured in the mind-that fiat, end
less expanse which fades off unmoved and
unbrolSen to the limits of vision-but it is
the desert, nevertheless, just as much as
the mountain SHOWS of the far north are
Il
Beyond, however, is the great plain itself,
its swelling fluctuations hardly relieving to
the eye the appearance of absolute flatness
which the picture presents.
The truth is the Saraha has a double as
pect, that of the fat and sandy plains and
that of the rocky ridge or mountain, the
so-called Hammada 1t is the latter that
is more particularly dreaded by the cara
vans, for among their wind-swept crags
there are no, or but few GASES, and only the
blowing sands and a relentless sun are
the companions of the foot-sore pilgrim.
In the fiat desert, at least where the sand
is not too deep. travelling is moderately
easy, for over long distances the surface
has become coated into hard, calcareous
crust-a solid basement rock, one may
call it. We saw no sand dunes of any
magnitude, those along the southern face
of the great Chott Melghgh, about twen-
ty feet in hight, being the highest; but
was informed by competent authority at
Biskra that beyond Tuggurt, on our route,
they rise to the prodigious hight of 1900
to 1400 feet This is certainly an imposing
monument 10 the power of the wind-one
that speaks far more eloquently even than
the wind-swept sands of coral islands.
1t has become custom in certain book
quarters of late to say that the Saraha is
not as fiat as 1t is commonly assumed to
be, and that it is almost everywhere torn
into ridges and rents. That is, however,
an imperfect statement of the truth. The
fiat desert is almost interminably fiat for
days or weeks of travel, with hardly a
rise of more than a few feet for mile after
mile of perspective. All around is the
same expenses; in vain the eye searches
after some special object to give 1t relief;
1t does not exist, unless II be the far-on
tufts of an approaching oasis.
l am not sure that these endless sands
are truly imposing; near some they GER
tt,fxr hax
lite pictures in the varying lights of the
morning and evening sun. 1t is then that
they seem to constitute a world of their
own, speaking in color that belongs to
them alone. We were not to any extent
troubled by their presence either as inn
pediments to travel or as freely-fioating
discomforts in the atmosphere. Only as
we approached Mreir, at the close of
hard days journey of some sixty-four
miles, did we come in disagreeable con-
fiict with them. Our horses had more than
their share in the second half of the days
work, for the better part Of four miles we
had been dragged through deep sand, and
finally the courage of the poor animals
had spent itself We were stuck fast in
the Sahara sands. at point some seventy
feet below sea level. Coaxing and urging
had little effect, and II was not until we
ourselves took a long hand in pulling and
pushing that we succeeded in extricating
ourselves.
Let It not for a moment be assumed that
the Sahara, even in the parts that do not
belong to the region of the Gases, is every
where destitute Of a governing vegetation.
Far from this is really the case. Along
the entire line of our journey a generous
supply of terebinth bushes, one TO two or
three feet in hight covered most of the
sand elevations. and with them was a form
of slckly green salcolaeclous plant, the
exact nature of which / was unable TO
discover. And IL we can fully receive a
war Illustration that has recently appear.
ed from the pencil of star correspond
ent. the same feature must be character
istic Of the Sahara about Timbuctoo as
We'll There are, indeed, a number of
spots where the vegetation is even more
luXurlant-if a scattering of plants can In
any sense be called acknowledgements
ing a number of dry herbs, such as the
rose Of Jericho. which hardly rises a few
inches above the surface; and again there
are large areas where the vegetation has