Onaro-1.1 lias lioen a great rentrr of oommeree, esjiccially wlioii flir M'zabitos livod 

 tJiere, wiio are now concentrated in the valley of the Oned M'zab, and when, 

 apparently, the caravan-ronte from Algeria rid Biskra — Totiggourt— Onargla— In 

 Saliih — Soudan was more frequented, slaves, ivory, and ostrich-feathers forming 

 the fortune of such caravans ; wliile now the slave-trade is ]ir()hil>ited, ivory finds 

 its way direct to the west const down the Niger and Senegal, and ostrich-feathers 

 are only brought in small quantities. Nevertheless, even now Onargla is an 

 important centre and much tliought of by the Arabs. 



The old streets of Onargla are narrow, many arched and lialf dark ; the soldiers' 

 barracks and houses of the ofHcors are outside the town, in large new buildings. 

 The town is surrounded by an ancient crenellated wail, with loopholes and a 

 rampart-walk ; and a feature of the place are the two white minarets, 25 metres 

 high and close togetlier. The old kasbah is no longer in existence, though its rains 

 can be triiced. Tlic ]iahn-groves, or "gardens" as they are always called by tlie 

 natives, are bare and generally in fairly deep depressions, thongli watered by wells 

 as well as from the water of the seltcha. Every property being snrronnded by high 

 mud-walls, progiess and collecting in the gardens are diflScnlt and tiresome. Flies 

 and tlie irritating little "sandflies" (/a'/i/oco/iojix ln'rfi'x:i Kieft'er, l'.H)8) were 

 frequent, and later iu tlie season Onargla is very unhealthy ; malarial fever 

 abounds, and it seems indeed as if Onargla is the most unhealthy of all the 

 Algerian oases. 



We collected a large series of Sparrows, which arc all red-headed I The only 

 other sedentary bird we found in the palm-groves was 'I'uitar snD'qalrn.^is aeqi/p- 

 Hams. No owls were seen, and we were assured that the Scops-Owls were not 

 known ; but this statement may be erroneons, since, possibly, they had not yet 

 arrived from the south. Of migrants we noticed ('alandrclla brachi/ilactijla, 

 Plii/Uoscopi, Motncilla alba nUm, Aimx crcccu, Annx iincnjuedula, Mac/ie/es /nigna.v, 

 some very shy males of Ornanthe ociiaidlif, three Tofaini.s (rectius Tringa!) 

 xtagmitilix, Totaiiux {Tringa) glottis, and, on March '-K the lirst few Chelicloii 

 7-ustica. 



Our interest was aroused in the (iara-Klima (or Gara-Kriraa), a flat-topped 

 mountain about 1',' kilometres from the town, through Professor Koenig's visit 

 to that place in Is'.i:). We tiiereforc hired donkeys (mules or horses not being 

 obtainable) and devoted a day to it. It is a most uninteresting hill, consisting of 

 hardened earth with a top of rock and stones, the way to it leading through a sandy 

 plain with a few palms and miserable nomad huts. There are here also the ruins 

 of the MV-abite town Sedrata, which was destroyed by the Arabs. Koenig had 

 the great luck to shoot a pale Eagle-Owl {Ihiho uscalaphus &\\ jceciins Bubo bubo 

 desertorum Erl.) and to find Buzzards' nests here ; but we tried in vain to find 

 the Bubo, and Buzzards were absent, though old nests, as yet empty, evidently 

 belonging to the lattei', were found. On tlie top of the mountain we shot a single 

 Ocnantlie leucopijga ; and this is the first place, coming from Touggourt, where this 

 species appears ! I was greatly interested in the rnins found on top of the Gara- 

 Kliraa. Koenig {Reinen und Forsc/i. in Algerian, p. S4) advan<ed tlie idea that they 

 were Roman ruins, strengthening his theory with the fact that, according to Barth 

 and Rohlfs, Roman remains had been found as far south as 27' north latitude. 

 Koenig's theory, however, is erroneous. Tlie end of the road leading to the top is 

 crowned by a mined archway, and one can trace houses and roads on the summit, 

 built of crude bricks of exactly the same nature as those used for the wall sur- 



