74 



SAtMKNAY 



SAHARA 



B^o Palm (Melrnxylon Rvmphii) : 

 a, Inflorescence ; 6, fruit. 



the form of pottage, and also partially baked in 

 earthenware moulds into small square biscuits. 



Large quantities 

 of t lie meal in it* 

 pure state are 

 sent to Singapore 

 from the eastern 

 islands, where it 

 is granulated or 

 pearled, and 

 bleached by the 

 Chineae for ship- 

 ment to Europe. 

 It comes into 

 commerce in 

 three forms, the 

 common brown 

 sago, pearl -sago, 



a ^fl A and sago-Hour. 



It is made by 

 two processes, 

 the starch grains 

 being burst in 

 somesamples and 

 not in others. 

 The chief uses of 

 ago in Europe 

 are for feeding 

 stock, making 

 starch, and by 

 cocoa-manufacturers for grinding up and giving 

 thickness or consistence to the dietetic beverage 

 made with it. Of sago about 15,OQO tons are used 

 in Britain, and of sago-flour 10,000 tons yearly. 

 The import* of sago and sago-flour in 1890 were 

 557,018 cwt., valued at 273,000. 



The stem, about 15 to 20 feet, is cut into lengths, 

 split open, and the pith dug out and placed in a 

 vessel with a sieve liottom. Water U applied to 

 separate the flour and carry it into a second vessel, 

 where it is soon dejiosited. The water is then run 

 off, and the flour dried ami put into little baskets 

 made of sago-leaves. The produce of a tree ranges 

 from 600 to 750 Ib. Pearl-sago ( which the Chinese 

 of Malacca prepare and send to Singapore) is in 

 small white spherical grains, varying in size from 

 that of a poppy-seed to a grain of millet. There are 

 several varieties which differ much in colour, some 

 being white and others reddish brown like radish- 

 seed. One kind of granulated sago from India has 

 been introduced under the name of tapioca the 

 real Tapioca (q.v.) being a totally different sub- 

 stance. Sago is not entirely soluble in hot water 

 like ordinary starch, and can therefore be employed 

 in making puddings, \c. , and in this way forms 

 a valuable article of food, being cheap, light, nutri- 

 tious, and easy of digestion. 



SimiH'llHV, a large river of Canada, falling into 

 the estuary of the St Lawrence on the north side, 

 about 115 miles below Quebec. It drains Lake 

 St John, and flows in an almost straight line about 

 100 miles east-south-east. In its upper part, amid 

 a wilderness of hills, it has numerous cataracts ; 

 but in the lower course, from the village of Chicou- 

 timi down, it flows lietween precipitous cliffs, often 

 from 500 to 1500 feet high, and is in many places 

 2 or 3 miles broad, while the depth varies from 17 

 to 170, and even, near the mouth, to 500 fathoms. 

 The largest vessels can ascend to Ha Ha Hay, 10 

 miles S. of Chicoutimi ; and during the summer 

 great numbers of tourists visit the river, attracted 

 by its magnificent scenery. 



Kntflintlllll. a wealthy and warlike town of 



ancient Spain, in Hispania Tnrraconensis, stood 

 on an eminence near the month of the Pallantias, 

 iU site occupied by the modern town of Murviedro. 

 Founded, according to Strabo, by Greeks from 



/acynthus, it became at an early period celebrated 

 for it* commerce, and attained to great wealth. 

 But the one event in its history wa- it* siege and 

 destruction by the Carthaginians, under llanniluil, 

 in 219 li.c-. Having held out the gi eater part of 

 a year against an army of 150,000 and a consum- 

 mate general, the famished Saguntine- concluded 

 i heir resistance with an act of heroic self-sacrifice. 

 Heaping their valuables into one vast pile, and 

 placing their women ami children around it, the 

 men made their la.-t .-ally against the enemy, and 

 the women fired the pile they hail prepared, cast 

 themselves upon it with their children, and so 

 found in the flames the fate their husbands met 

 in battle. The destruction of Saguntum iliiectly 

 led to the second Punic war. 



Sahara (Arab. Sdh'ra), the vast desert region 

 of North Africa, stretching from the Atlantic to the 

 Nile, and from the southern confines of Morocco. 

 Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli southwards to the 

 vicinity of the Niger and Lake Tsad. It is usual 

 to regard the Libyan Desert, lying lietweeti Egypt. 

 the central Soudan, and Tripoli, a- a separate 

 division. lioth are, however, links in the chain 

 of great deserts that girdle the Old World from the 

 Atlantic coast across Africa, Arabia, Persia, Tur- 

 kestan, and Mongolia to the Pacific. It was long 

 customary to assert that the Sahara was the bed of 

 an ancient inland sea, and that it consisted of a 

 vast, uniform expanse of sand, swept up here and 

 there into ridges by the wind. But tnis idea is 

 utterly erroneous. Since the French became masters 

 of Algeria, ami more especially in recent years, 

 they have completely revolutionised our knowledge 

 of the Sahara, at all event- of the country imme- 

 diately to the south of Algeria and Tunis. The 

 surface, instead of being uniform and depressed 

 below sea-level, is highly diversified, and attains 

 in one place an altitude of fully 8000 feet. But, 

 in spite of our knowledge of this part of the world 

 having been so greatly increased of late, there are 

 several extensive tracts as to which we have next 

 to no information. The present article will 

 therefore only touch upon the more outstanding 

 features. 



From the neighlxmrhood of Cape lilanco in the 

 west avast bow or semicircle of sand -dunes stretches 

 right round the northern side of the Sahara to 

 Fezzan, skirting the Atlas Mountains and the 

 mountains of Algeria. This long l>clt of sand-hills 

 varies in width from 50 to 300 miles, and is known 

 by the names Igidi and Krg. both meaning 'sand 

 hills.' The hills rise to 300 feet i in one place, it is 

 said, to more than 1000 feet), though the average ele- 

 vation is about 70 feet. They arc compo-ed of pure 

 quartz -an. I, reddish brown in colour ; are station- 

 ary in character, though constantly changing their 

 outward form and configuration ; and lie as a rule 

 in parallel chains, whose outward slopes are fairly 

 gentle, but their inward slopes steep. Water is 

 nearly always to be found below the surface in the 

 hollows lietween the different chains of these sand- 

 bills, and there a few dry plants struggle to main- 

 tain a miserable existence. South of Algeria, on 

 the other side of the Erg, the country rises into 

 the lofty plateau of Ahaggar (4000 feet), which 

 fills all the middle parts of the Sahara. It* surface 

 inn- up into veritable mountains 6500 feet high, 

 which, incredible as it may seem, are covered with 

 snow for three months in the year. On the south 

 it apparently falls again towards the basins of the 

 Niger and l>ake Tsad; nevertheless there are 

 mountain-ranges along the eastern side reaching 

 8000 feet in Mount Tnsidde in thcTiblni country, 

 and a mountain-knot in the oasis of Air (or Ashen) 

 which reaches up to 6500 feet. Mountainous tracts 

 occur also in the west, lietween Morocco and Tim- 

 l.ii. -t oo, but of inferior elevation (2000 feet). These 



