CLIMATE 



and many perfumes and spice- trees, are natives of scrub. In 

 fact, it is the real centre of all gums, frankincenses, and 

 myrrhs. 



As man depends upon plants and animals, and as animals 

 also are dependent on the plant world, it is the climate 

 which really is responsible for everything. 



The world of plants is entirely and exactly regulated by 

 the character of the climate. What, then, is the climate of 

 scrub ? 



Those countries enjoy brilliant sunshine, cloudless skies, 

 and yet there is sufficient rain to permit of irrigation and to 

 prevent the unmitigated desolation of the desert. When, as 

 has happened in many of these famous lands, the forests 

 have been cut down and the aqueducts have been neglected, 

 they become arid, dry, and almost useless. But when care- 

 fully and industriously worked, as they were in the days of 

 Greece, Carthage, and Rome, they produce results which will 

 for ever live in the history of the world. 



The meaning of such half-desert climates and of the scrub 

 which covers them has been already suggested. 



The scrub is trying to occupy the desert. 



If one takes the sternwheel steamer at the First Cataract of 

 the Nile and passes southwards, the desolation of black rock 

 and "honey-coloured" sand of the Libyan Desert is at 

 first unbroken. But here and there the thorny trees of the 

 " Seyal " . Acacia show the beginnings of a scrub region. 

 Much further to the south, those acacias and others become 

 great forests which extend all along the south of the Sahara 

 Desert and furnish the valuable gums of the Soudan. 



If one passes southward through this forest of acacias, it 

 alters in character. The trees become taller, closer together, 

 and climbing plants and undergrowth become more frequent. 



io8 



