Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1903-04-22

Seeing the above in metropolitan
weekly and being desirous Of renewing
acquaintance with an interesting old
friend, for he always had nsw ex-
.perience Of thrilling interest to exploit,
l fastened up to his fayorite club, and,
between puffs Of Havana perfectos,
obtained the following account of a
weird predicamcnt, which give as
nearly verbatim as my memory allows
me:
'Thc Gescrt!" exclaimed the colonel,
rapturously. "Ah. my boy, standing
on the brink of the great Nubian sand
seas, one is transfiXed. The sun was
just Pscping over the barren cliffs
beyond the Nile, tipping them with a
dull fire. when the order came to start.
My heart leaped. l forgot all dangers,
and thought only of adventure, Of new
sensations. The chief guide gave the
word, and we mounted, giving civiliza-
ton, home, the very world itself, it
seemed, single backward glance.
There were five of us, with glides
and mcn; anR it was the third day of
last March that we started over the
difficult trsdl from Korosko, taking
the south&ard trail toward Absoh,
leading Through the very bowels of the
>NubiSh sands. Our objects were di-
verse. My own was to discover some
rsTe antiquities of which l had heard
Fumors, but The principal interest on
the part of the others was to rediscover
the abandoned gold mines of Absoh.
Knowing that the Nubians are con-
f1rmed in their Incidence and utterly
unacQuainted with the modern methods
of prospecting. the TWO experts Of the
party-one Californian and the other
an Australian-both thoroughly famil-
lar vrith goid-bearing regions, felt con-
vinced that, with patient effort, there
was a possibility of unearthing a for
tune, and the exciting experiment was
at least worth the trial.
For four days our little caravan
snailed along the barren sands, pass
ing Ell Murrah, or springs CT bitter
water, and all went we'll. Then the
journey, which for the first day or two
was full of varied novelties, began to
grow painfully monotonous. To make
matters worse, the geark;aeih skins,
which -S!e=rle-uS5d to carry fresh water
from the Nile, were daily growing fiat
ter. The wells Of Ell Murrah were sa-
! line and heavy with brackish sediment,
and, though the camels drank of the
water without suffering i'll effects, the
men who INDUCED freely were seized
with intense gripin IS. Two days south
-%aru rom erv- 1znessie
occurred.
"Our way. led over the beaten camel
trail. centuries old, and yet every
month the tract was oblitcrated by the
drifting sands. Now and then we
scarcely knew OR way save that the
route was pointed out to us by the
wreckage of former caravans Which
had shed the sick and exhausted by
the wayside, both man and beast, leav-
ing them to the merciless sun and the
providing iackals till death relieved
them. There is no place on the face
of the globe where the survival Oh the
fittest means so much as here on the
Nubian desert, where the caravan nev-
er stops; and if the poor native cannot
ulod on, no halt is made for his recoV-
cry. The consequence is, that the far-
ther one progresses, the more skeletons
of men and beasts point the uncertain
way through the drifting sands, and
the sight is surely most depressing.
'My camel was not a particularly
sest one lie had habit of tagging
behind, SO that once or twice day
the caravan was compelled to halt and
wait for me to come up, ike lost
vertebra of skeleton reptile. on
this occasion, while somewhat behind
the party, fine young gazelle
crossed my path net a. dozen rods
ahead, dasning with sudden fright
into a little revine which appeared
to be closed at the farther end, Sc
that apparently he was made prison
er. Rife in hand, leaped from my
camel. Eagerly made my wa!
through the hot, ankle-deep sand Il
the little ravire, following it up SOM
distance, ready to bring down m.
game. To my surprise however,
found that there were several turn
beyond, and soon saw that my chas
was bootless. Dejectedly l made m
way back to my camel, which had no
stirred, and seemed only too glad 10
the little respite from the rackln
toll of the march. Taking goo
draught from my geerbah of water, an
also filling my canteen; l drew tn
beast to his knees, as is customar
when mounting, so that by placln
nv foot upon his neck, by his UP
ward movement of the head he woul
raise me, enabling me to step into tn
cushioned seat betwesn the humps. A
I was fixing my foot on the camel
= neck, however, the sudden raising
his head caused knife to slip from m
belt in such way that it grazed tn
beasts flanks, giving him Slight D'
stinging flesh wound. Up he starte
and so suddanly, with that quick VI
ward throw of the body, that W;
pitched clean over his humps, and fe
headforemost in the sands. Then,
my CONSERVATION, with a queer sno
of rage, the camel made a little circl
and with his head thrown up like
ostrich pursued by hunter, he bum
ed along at a rapid pace over the trs
in the direction Of the caravan.
'In vain shouted, in vain | shrie
ed all the Arab coaxings and lmpret
tions that I knew. Then. quite eXhaus
ed, I squatted in the sands, alone, par
ing, enraged and desolate, watchl1
my mount fade to a speck on the no
zon. l grew resigned, however feeh
that within three or four hours
most my comrades would be returni
f0r