The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-19

F. I. Harding in the Travel Magazine
 for January.
 ~VrERH is an intricate business
 (CD system over the Sahara, involv-
 ing the lives and labors or thousands of men and hundred times as many beasts of burden. In our land or scientific transportation. of the locomo- lives and its spiders maze of steel ave nues, the lowly camel has no part put his African brother serves as boxcar' gondalo and Pullman. In companies or from 40 to 1000, the camels plod across the unchartered sands and patiently bear the privations of hunger and thirst, and the severity of the merciiess sirocco. The Bedouin drivers tend them as care fully as the hardships Of the climate and country will permit. growing to bear the same affection. in some instances, to- ward their huge charges that we may have for horse or hound.
 At Biskra I entered the Sahara. This oasis-which Hichens has fehcitously named .srhe Garden of Aliah"-boasts of one quarter million stately palm trees, bathing their roots in the cool "segias" and p1uming their crests in the golden air. After installing myself Tn comfortable quarters. no time was lost in getting in touch with the life Of the caravans. I soon learned where the cam els were marketed, the expeditions or ganizsd, loaded and dispatched, the in- coming freight sold or reconsigned to the single track railway for the coast.
 r. ing . guide-one Achmet-I sought out the market place. This open square, sur rounded by whitewashed arcades roofed with palm trunks and plaster. was tho heart of the trade. Mingling with the anxious merchants were fortune teilers' snake charmers, peddlers of boiled To- custs, of milk and water.
 Having spent several hours amid this hustle, Achmet led the way to the camel for the one live stock of the country for donl1eys and horses are but trim ming to transportation in such sun- grilled waste. The open yard devoted to the sales was in uproar. Here long robed Arabs rushed about tugging bri- dles of numbering camels. Nobody seemed to be bargaining. yet I was told the amount of stock changing hands is often enormous. especially when a rich caravan Is organizing for trip to the Lake Chad region or to the soudan for ivory, gold dust, slaves and ostrich feathers.
 Achmet made me acquainted with a friend who bought up camels on specu- lation and who told me much of inter- est concerning the state of the market. A salable mehari or riding camel of 8 to 10 years. clean limbed and lightly framed, weighed perhaps 400 pounds. brought $6O and would travel with a single rider 60 miles day, going smooth ly hour after hour. Pack animals were rated at ts, $20 to $so, were thicker set and heavy. Their strength Is wonder ful, load of 1000 pounds being quite usual. Single-hump camels only are found in the Sahara, the double-hump or Bactrian being an Asiatic product and practically unknown.
 In loading, q long bolster-like pad Is placed across the back of the kneeling camel and made solid by girth rope of plaited camers hair. The kerratas are really huge sacks. four feet by two, hanging one on each side, and stuffed with the cargo. These bulging bags are 1 leaned upon either side of the prostrate beast, the tops fastened together and the "ship of the desert" beaten to his feet. ready for the high seas. The most suspicious time for clearing port seemed l to be upon Friday, shortly after the muezzin had called the noon prayer | A brief march marks the first day. the ksrratas are alinnad on and the camsls