178 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



inducted into the mysteries of contradiction by the heavy rain 

 which, on the day following our arrival (August 28th), had washed 

 out the streets of Algiers, and by the storm which a few days later 

 broke upon us in our crossing of the Djurjura Mountains. The fact 

 is, as our charming hostess informed us, heavy showers are in this 

 region by no means a rare occurrence, even at this season of the year. 



Promptly on the morning of September 7th, when the oasis had 

 yet hardly awakened to the call of dawn, we found our cabriolet 

 waiting for us, its three sorry-looking horses bowed down to the work 

 that had been prepared for them. A stalwart semi- Arab, uniformed 

 in the white garb which is thought best to ward off the heat of the 

 desert sun, stood for our driver, and it was fortunate for us that his 

 linguistic attainments covered the French language as well as his 

 native tongue. Like many of his tribe, he had accepted the lan- 

 guage of his conquerors; but, again, like others, although without 

 any good reason that he had to give, he was not disposed to look 

 placidly upon the continuous march of civilization which the French 

 had inaugurated. Being young in years, the good old times were 

 merely a tradition with him— a tradition not in itself sufficient to 

 warm enthusiasm within his breast, nor to eradicate that germ of 

 laziness which had taken possession of his body. Ben-Sali was at 

 times excruciatingly lazy, although at the start he served us and 

 himself about equally well; later in the day, when the monotony of 

 his work began to assert itself, and when the desert heat had almost 

 continuously forced from his brow huge beads of perspiration, he 

 withdrew to silent meditation and to the enjoyment of a lone pipe — 

 at intervals goading on his horses to better work, at other times 

 roundly berating them for their shortcomings. Poor animals! they 

 had a hard work before them and accomplished it well, but they 

 received no consideration from their driver. 



The early start, giving us the better part of four hours before 

 the sun succeeded in dissipating the banks of clouds which veiled the 

 eastern sky, made the first part of our journey truly delightful. 

 There was no desert heat to be distinguished from any other form 

 of heat, and if anything, the morning could l)e more nearly called 

 cool than warm — at least, so the outdoor air appeared compared 

 with the confined atmosphere of our hotel rooms. Driving into 

 the Sahara may appear strange to those whose only conception of the 

 desert is based upon the old notion that it is an almost endless ex- 

 panse of soft and shifting sand and nothing else. But drive in one 

 readily can, and even behind a trio of horses whose vigor and 

 strength were less marked than they were in our own animals. The 

 roadway was fairly marked out for most of its course, appearing at 

 times as the solid basement rock of the region, while elsewhere it 



