The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14

Sahara seemed always changing. Me passed for miles over bare rock, almost as smooth as a floor, and then through regions where the rocks were ragged and cut up into all sorts of shapes. At times there were boulders and again small pebbles of different colors, red brown and black. Here about Beni Ou- nif the desert is largely limestone, while farther south, along the Zousfana river l passed through rolling dunes and plains covered with boulders.
 Not Flat Bed of Sand.
 The old descriptions represented the Sahara as a dreary waste of barren sand as flat as the sea, vast wilderness where travellers must perish if they tried to go through it. The real Sahara has vast expanses of sand. It has plains as big as a good sized state or the Union, which are covered with stones, but great part of it is rolling It is largely q plateau, broken up by lofty mountains and cut up by water courses called wad- dys which are dry the greater part of the year. Its average height above the sea is about as great as that of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, and in many places it is as high as the Ale ghCnies and higher
 The sand dunes themselves are some times six hundred feet high, and they rise from the desert, crescent-shaped, the horns of the crescent being turned away from the winds. The sand Is rolled gp by The wind from the bottom to the top, each grain going over and over until il I.tils inside the crescent. As this rolling goes on the dunes increase in size. They move along slowly and if railroad should be in their way they would swal- low it up. l have seen similar dunes on the great Peruvian desert at the foot of { f1,a A,,Ia hax fA1I 1af flaax were the chief obstacles to railroad build ing in that region. These dunes grow hard as the wind blows against them. During my travels through them here not far from Beni Ounif, 1 have ridden up them on horseback and the sand is almost as solid as that of the seashore.
 Vegetation of the Desert.
 There are large regions in the Sahara which have no vegetation whatever, but many other parts have grass during parts of the year. This is so everywhere along the edges of the desert, and also along the dried-up water courses, the beds of which contain some moisture. In many places there is a slight rainfall during certain months. The least water causes the grass to spring up and the Arabs drive their 6ocks to such places to pasture. Where the grass will not grow there are sometimes thorn bushes which furnish food for the camels, and nearly every caravan stops from time to time upon march for such food. Along the railroad from here to the Atlas moun- tains there is in places thin growth of tough grass, and I have seen thous- ands of animals feeding upon It. The fiocks are usually composed of both sheep and goats, and strange to say, they are fat, although 1t would seem that most of them are grazing upon the bare stones.
 As to the oases, I saw many on my way here. They are chiefly date palms with mud villages inside nearby. I have visited a number of them, and will make special letter about them in the future.
 As I have said the road here was built for military purposes. It is an ab- solute necessity to the French control of the Sahara. The stations along it are all fortified, and the country for miles about here is one great camp. Every