ASPECTS OF NATURE IN THE SAHARA. 581 



derness of green, the closely matted tree tufts presenting so dense 

 a canopy of verdure that the eye fails to penetrate to the soil 

 that gives it birth. For the better part of a mile this sea of green 

 extends virtually unbroken, throwing up a brilliance of mono- 

 chrome coloring which it would be difficult to conceive equaled. 

 Upward of eighty thousand date palms are the main adornment of 

 this patch of green, but let it not be supposed that they alone con- 

 stitute the vegetation of the oasis. Following in the path of our 

 guide, Ben-Labri, one of the Arab residents of the little adobe vil- 

 lage of El-Kantara situated on the outside, we entered the wilder- 

 ness of green by a tortuous, narrow passageway leading between the 

 mud houses, and found ourselves in a garden lane of striking and 

 refreshing beauty. The fact is that the apparently unbroken oasis 

 is in reality a number of distinct garden areas, belonging individu- 

 ally to separate families of the village, each one walled off by its 

 casing of stone or adobe, much in the manner of field properties of 

 more civilized regions. Between these walls run the numerous 

 dividing lanes, buried in that dark shade which elsewhere would 

 hardly be possible except in a primeval forest. Tumbling brooks 

 and water courses, most of the latter of artificial conduct, follow the 

 lines of these lanes, or course over the separating gardens, giving to 

 the numerous basins which have here and there been cut around the 

 clumps of palms their needed quantity of water. What perhaps 

 surprised us more than anything else in the construction of the 

 oasis was the large number of trees and bushes other than those of 

 a desert aspect which formed a part of the vegetation. Orange and 

 lemon trees, figs, pomegranates, peaches, and dwarf apples were well 

 mixed in with the palms, besides a multitude of other plants, of 

 which our limited botanical knowledge could hardly determine the 

 natural order. The carob, with its long, pendent pods, and the 

 prickly pear or nopal, the distinctive cactus of northern Africa, 

 were conspicuously noticeable by their abundance. Here and 

 there the trailing vine hung its luscious fruit, although not with that 

 richness and vigor which characterize the grape growth of North 

 America generally; also an occasional dandelion brought memories 

 to us of our own fields and meadows, an association in no way less- 

 ened through the presence of clumps of raspberry and blackberry. 



Comparatively few of the date palms carry their shafts to a 

 height exceeding fifty or sixty feet, the greater number of them 

 probably not rising higher than twenty-five to thirty feet. They 

 were heavily laden with brown or yellow fruit, which, of course, 

 constitutes one of the staple articles of food to the native. We 

 found them much too sweet for our taste, and while the fruit was 

 always attainable, the bunches frequently hanging down to within a 



