CHAPTEE II 



THE MAKE OF THE DESERT 



THE first going -down into the desert is 

 always something of a surprise. The fancy 

 has pictured one thing ; the reality shows quite 

 another thing. Where and how did we gain 

 the idea that the desert was merely a sea of 

 sand ? Did it come from that geography of our 

 youth with the illustration of the sand-storm, 

 the flying camel, and the over-excited Bedouin ? 

 Or have we been reading strange tales told by 

 travellers of perfervid imagination the Marco 

 Polos of to-day ? There is, to be sure, some 

 modicum of truth even in the statement that 

 misleads. There are " seas " or lakes or ponds 

 of sand on every desert ; but they are not so 

 vast, not so oceanic, that you ever lose sight of 

 the land. 



What land ? Why, the mountains. The 

 desert is traversed by many mountain ranges, 

 ( some of them long, some short, some low, and 

 some rising upward ten thousand feet. They 



Sea of sand. 



Mountain 

 ranges on 

 the desert. 



