THE BARBARY SHEEP. 



The gate of Africa ! What a world of romance is 

 comprised in those words ! The Dark Continent, 

 at once an El Dorado and a deathtrap, the grave of 

 many a reputation, the cradle of many a millionaire, 

 yet exerts a wonderful fascination for the adventurous 

 traveller, and still prompts those who have once set 

 foot on her soil to return thither. Rugged peaks 

 uplifted to a sky of indigo ; mountain torrents 

 roaring over masses of water-worn boulders ; still 

 lakes, where the ambatch bean grows, and the 

 papyrus reed rears its graceful plume of green and 

 gold ; glaring deserts carpeted with flints, desolate 

 and waterless these are amongst her attractions. 1 

 The extreme north of the continent Algeria for 

 instance exhibits so striking a resemblance to 

 Europe that one can hardly realise that the 

 Mediterranean stretches between ; but the traveller 

 will find at El Kantara a rent in the limestone 

 mountains through which he may view the palm 

 trees of the desert. El Kantara, in short, may be 

 regarded as the gate of Africa ; it marks the northern- 

 most limit of the date palm, was formerly the home 

 of the lion and leopard, and still harbours to-day 



1. The fascination of the African wilderness must be experienced to be 

 understood ; to the writer, the utter absolute silence of the desert consti- 

 tutes its chief charm. 



