42 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



sun-dried mud, roofed with palm wood, constitute 

 the architecture of the few native villages; at the 

 Fontaine des Gazelles there is a marsh due to the 

 presence of a saline spring. The vegetation (save 

 for palm trees at El Kantara and Biskra) is as 

 miserably stunted as in the high plateaux; brilliantly 

 tinted rocks and barren hills complete a picture of 

 savage desolation, rendered more impressive by the 

 overpowering silence of that region of sand. 



Although the above description will give an idea 

 of the home of the elephant shrew, the traveller is 

 too frequently obliged to trust to luck to obtain any 

 specimens he may desire. One may, as recommended 

 by M. Lataste, pay a few poor or idle Arabs to obtain 

 the animals; or one may set traps, as for snaring 

 birds. The macroscelides occurs near the interesting 

 city of El Aghouat or Laghouat, famed for its 

 21,000 date palms, for its mosque and oases. Any 

 person travelling merely to see the country might 

 spend a few days in searching the neighbourhood 

 for the elephant shrew; or the alfa gatherers whose 

 huts may be seen at Bou-Cedraia, 241 kilometres 

 from Blidah, on the road to Laghouat, might be 

 enlisted in this service. Unfortunately, the cerastes 

 viper abounds in these wildernesses, and its incon- 

 venient habit of half-hiding in the sand by no means 

 increases one's sense of security. These set-backs 

 well illustrate the difficulties which hamper the 

 zoologist who in a wild and remote country attempts 



