(7) 



roniulino; Oiiargla : and the bases of the houses on (oj) are partly bnilt of stones, 

 roughly shaped for the purpose. 



These stones induced Koenig to think they were made by Romans, but where 

 Arabs or Berbers find stones lying about by thousands they always nse them more 

 or less when building, as one can see in hundreds of places. Moreover it is well 

 known that the forsaken town on the top of Gara-Klima was a M'zabite town. It was 

 the M'zabites who built the well which pierced the whole Gara to a depth of 85 

 metres, i.e. 30 metres beyond the bottom of the hill. It is now dry and probably 

 not more than 3U metres deep ; in I8!)0 it was still 45 metres deep, the rest being 

 filled up with sand. Similarly constructed wells and ruins on the tops of hills are 

 found on the hillock of Ba-Mendil, north-west of Oaargla, and near Ghardaia. 

 Pieces of pottery among the ruins on the top of the Gara-Klima are also of typical 

 Berber origin. There is thus nothing whatever in favour of Koenig's theory. If, 

 according to Rohlfs and Barth, Roman remains occur as far south as 27 ' N. latitude, 

 they are certainly not found there in the Algerian Sahara. It is true that in an 

 old Arab manuscript a statement occurs that Romans reached Ouargla ; if this 

 should be true it would probably have been some adventurers only and not a 

 Roman force, but they have certainly not left any traces behind. 



The view from Gara-Klima is magnificent, and one sees westwards many other 

 "gour" with more rugged sides, where probably more owls and hawks occur than 

 on Klima. 



At last, on March 13, we left Ouargla, having bought with great difficulty 

 two meliiiri and two more camels, and also taken another native, a Chaambi dad 

 in a beautiful purple gown who had an old gun and his own very hardy though 

 old and sore riding-camel ; he was a very useful man, well versed in travelling, 

 shooting and hunting, and full of fun, improvising a concert almost every night, 

 not to the benefit of our cooking-pots, one of wliich formed the solitary musical 

 instrument, the rest of the din being singing, yelling and clapping of hands. 



For 20 kilometres our way led over an absolutely bare sebcha, resembling an 

 endless harrowed field ; then it became gravelly, afterwards more stony, and at 

 a distance of about 22 km. there commenced almost bare clay hills with low 

 cliffs (PI. IX., lower photo), and broken np by numerous dry ancient water courses. 

 These hills were inhabited by a few pairs of Oi'/mnt/ic {Sax/cola auct.) Icucopi/gd 

 and a pair of Oenanthe lugens halophila. A pair of Ravens (donbtless umbrinns) 

 were seen, and some old nests, perhaps of Buz/.ards, were found. After a short 

 ascent we had to descend again, and entered a bare rolling stony plateau where only 

 a few Ammomunes phoemcurus arenicolor occurred. A solitary swallow flitted 

 across the ground. On the 14th we continued the march over the hammada, 

 descending somewhat, though the plain remained the same, only here and there 

 interspersed with pans of fine mealy soil, absolutely bare and tiresome to cross ; 

 two or three times a Mnka {Aluemon aldudipi's) was heard and seen, once an 

 Oenanthe. deserti, once a Cream-coloured Cursor, twice a solitary Kestrel and three 

 single Swallows. Moreover, this dreary day was cold, dull and windy, and we rode 

 all day in our overcoats. In the evening some Xa^ moths came to the light. Our 

 Chaambi tried target-shooting with his gun, one barrel of which was burst open ; 

 as his shots went too low, he bent the barrel slightly with his foot. Needless to 

 say, I always kejit at a safe distance when he was shooting, but the gun never burst 

 any nmrc, at least not as long as he was with us. On the lOth the journey was 

 coutiuucd for a lon^' time over the same monotonous flat plain, which changed to 



