ASPECTS OF NATURE IN THE SAHARA. 177 



Koudaire. The road — for such the tread of the caravans may prop- 

 erly be called in this part — follows out the full north-and-south extent 

 of Biskra, and almost immediately after leaving the last palm of the 

 oasis enters upon that vast expanse of sand which, with the little 

 green that belongs to it, constitutes the southern panorama. Being- 

 limited in time, we did not avail ourselves of the facilities of travel 

 which the caravans afford — nor, in fact, did we feel disposed in a 

 first effort to submit to the disarticulating motion of the dromedary 

 — but arranged for a small cabriolet and two teams of horses, to 

 carry us so far as this improved form of conveyance would permit. 

 To insure a speedy journey, I had ordered one trio of horses to 

 proceed in advance to Chegga, some thirty miles distant, there to 

 await our coming on the following day. The morrow, however, was 

 not to be as we had planned, and here again we took in a new lesson 

 in physical geography. At the evening meal at Biskra informa- 

 tion came to us that the relay of horses which had been ordered to 

 our advance post had returned, not having been able to make the 

 passage of the Djedi, the main waterway of southern Algeria. The 

 course of this stream, when it exists at all, is directed southeastward 

 into the depression of the Chott Melghigh, where its waters add 

 still further to the accumulation of salt, which now lies some fifty to 

 sixty feet below the surface of the Mediterranean. Ordinarily it 

 offers no impediment to a passage, but now — and in the dry sea- 

 son — it had suddenly expanded to the dimensions of a lake, bury- 

 ing the surrounding country for miles beyond its legitimate banks. 

 This was strange news, for who would have suspected a journey into 

 the Sahara to be interfered with by an obstacle of this kind at this 

 season of the year? The overflow of the Djedi was the result of a 

 mountain storm which had preceded by three or four days, and only 

 now had the waters expanded to their full volume. The Arabs had 

 vainly attempted to force our horses across, and what they can not 

 accomplish in this direction might safely be left untried; but we 

 were informed that there would be a great ahaissement of the waters 

 in the next twenty-four hours, and that the relay would successfully 

 pass in that time. Complacently, even though regretfully, we 

 acceded to this forced delay, but we remained not a little suspicious 

 as to the promised lowering of the Avaters. Pending the making of 

 new arrangements occasional flashes of lightning broke through the 

 western sky, and the raindrops pattered heavily on the great palm 

 tufts that reared their heads over the garden court of our hotel. It 

 was showering, and pleasant interludes were given over to sprink- 

 ling of hail. At another time, as students of geographical text-books 

 and of special guides, we should have been surprised by the condi- 

 tions as they presented themselves to us, but we had already been 



VOL. LIII. — 14 



