The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-13

ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO THE WASTES
OF SAND AND ROCK.
Various Aspects Of the Great Piain-There
Have Been Many Misstatements Con-
cerning It-More Gases and Vegetation
Z Than Generally Supposed.

eyes are instinctiyely turned in the direc-
tion 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 ruggedness which speaks of a
landscape not yet finished. And yet the
hrst view Of the desert is that Of one Of
Its oases, and of one which Is very nearly
The fairest Of them all, for IL receives the
GOODNESS of the north as well as the heat
from the south, and the stream that carries
the luxury Of growth into its deeper re-
oesses has not yet been sapped of its vital.
ity by 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 sun, 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 or
dinarily pictured In the mind-that fiat,
endless expanse which fades off unmoved
and unbroken to the limits of vision-but
it is the desert nevertheless just as much
as the mountain SHOWS Of the far north
are a part of the great arctic "sea of ice. T"
Beyond, however, is the great plain itself,
its swelling undulations hardly relieving
ness which the picture presents.
The truth is that the Sahara has dou
BILE aspect, 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
caravans, for among their wind swept
crags there are no, or but few, oases, and
only the blowing sands and q relentless
sun are the companions of the footsore
pilgrim. In the fiat desert, at least where
the sand Is not too deep, travelling Is mod
erately easy, for over long distances the
surface has become coated into hard, cal
careous crust-a solid basement rock, one
may call il. We saw no sand dunes of any
magnitude, those along the southern face
OF the great Chott Melghigh, about 20 feet
in height, being the highest. But / was
informed by competent authority at Biskra
that beyond Tuggurt, on our route, they
rise to the prodigious height of 200 to
! 400 feet. This is certainly an imposing
monument to 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 Sahara is
not as fat as it is commonly assumed to
DE, 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 fat for
days or weeks of travel, with hardly a rise
of more than few feet for mile after mile
of perspective. All around is the same ex
panse. In vain the eye searches for some
special object to give it relief. 1t does not
exist, unless 1t be the far off tufts of an
approaching oasis
am not sure that these endless sands
are truly imposing. Sometimes they Ger
tainly are, but they present most exquisite
pictures in the varying lights of the morn
ing 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
rby their presence, either as impediments
to travel or as freely floating discomforts
in the atmosphere. Only as we approached
'Mreir, at the close of hard days journey
of some "a miles, did we come in disagree
able conflict with them. Our horses had
more than their share in the second halt
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
urging had little effect, and it was not
until we ourselves took long hand in
pushing and pulling that we succeeded in
extricating ourselves.
Let it not for moment be assumed that
the Sahara, even in the parts that do not
belong to the region of the oasis, is every
where destitute of growing vegetation.
Far from this is really the case. Along
the entire length of our journey gener
Gus supply of terebinth bushes, one or two
or three feet in height, covered most of
the sand elevations, and with them was a
form of siclsly green salcolacious plant,
the exact nature OF which l was unable TO
discover, and if we can fully believe "a
war illustration that has recently appeared
from the pencil of a staff correspondent,
the same feature must bc a characteristic
of the Sahara about Timbuktu rs well.
There are, indeed, u number of spots where
the vegetation is even moro luxuriant-if
a scattering CT plants can in any sense be
called luxurhnt-comprisin number OF
dry herbs, such as the rose of Jericho,
which hardly rises few inches above the
surface, and again there are large areas
where the vegetation has been completely
stamped out, or where it has been buried
deep beneath its canopy OF sand
1t is the oasis that is the redeeming pearl
of the desert. No poetic temperament Is
needed to prepare one for the enjoyments
of its coming. From miles of distance
the eye fastens itself upon the tree tops;
the dark green is n break in the landscape,
and like the black shadow of clouds, 1t
seems to 60 and come, the gentle undula-
tions of tho desert throwing 1t now and
again out of sight. We had penetrated
but moderate distance into the desert,
but the coming of the oasis was relief
that can hardly be described-those dense
groves of date palms and the circulating
streams of water. What must, indeed, the
oasis be to those who have wearily plodded
its sands for weeks at a time. When we
returned to Bskra after our southerly
Journey the sun had just set behind the
palm forest, illuminating the sky with
that soft African yellow which has been
matched only by the brush of Edward
Frere. The tall tree trunks rose against
this in spccter shadows of brown, silent
monoliths, rising as IL from silent grave.
An Arab group appeared here and there
the flowing waters and the mosque asking
each to his special tlevotious -philadel-