THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 5 1 



flags, but not by any Ostrich eggs as some of those at 

 Gardaia were. 



On the 14th news came that the Touareg — a lawless 

 tribe of robbers — were assembling in force on the Waregla 

 route ; and the following day a letter was brought to me 

 (in Arabic) with tidings of a great camel "razzia" at Zergoun, 

 (which though not in our road, lay to the north of us,) in 

 which 2,000 camels had been carried off, and it was said six 

 men killed, but I did not place much reliance on this latter 

 statement. The " Spahis," Arab soldiers in French pay, 

 were in hot pursuit, but with little chance of coming up with 

 the fugitives. Trusting that they would not come on our 

 Avay, we on the 16th left Berryan and travelled to Gardaia, 

 which is the chief city of the Mzab confederation. 



Our road lay through a dreary tract of country — stony, 

 brown, and mountainous — save at rare intervals, where the 

 dull prospect was suddenly broken by a patch of green, 

 formed by the rain collecting in a hollow ; but these fresh 

 spots were few and far between. In this ride Canon Tristram 

 got Dupont's Lark, a species I never met with. 



And now by narrow defiles our cavalcade drew near the 

 capital. I could not help thinking, as often as I reined in 

 my mule, what awful havoc the long guns of the Arabs 

 would make with an invading army in such a place ; and 

 no doubt for them many a winding pass teems with 

 historic interest. That the city has figured in more than 

 one sanguinary conflict the bullet marks on the walls testify. 

 But who will forget the first view of Gardaia .-• Standing 

 upon a gentle eminence, crowned by the never-failing 

 Mosque — her flat-roofed houses rising tier over tier above 

 the evergreen Palm trees, the ancient Arab city bursts upon 

 your view. 



It is too hot to go out in the middle of the day, her 

 gardens therefore should be visited in the cool of the 

 morning, or in the red blush of sunset. Then the woods 



