ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 103 



tion Scientifique de TAlgerie de 1840 & 1842, publiee par ordre du 

 Gouvernement, Sciences Hist, et Geogr. t. viii. 1846, pp. 364 and 

 373,) attain an elevation of 10,700 Fr. (11,400 Eng.) feet; exceed- 

 ing, therefore, the height of Etna. A singularly formed highland 

 of an almost square shape (Sahab el Marga), bounded on the south by 

 higher elevations, is situated in 33 lat. From thence towards the sea 

 to the west, about a degree south of Mogador, the Atlas declines in 

 height : this south-westernmost part bears the name of Idrar-N-Deren. 

 The northern Mauritanian boundaries of the widely extended low 

 region of the Sahara, as well as its southern limits towards the fertile 

 Soudan, are still but little known. If we take on a mean, estima- 

 tion the parallels of 16 and 32 as the outside limits, we obtain 

 for the Desert, including its Oases, an area of more than 118,500 

 square German geographical miles ; or between nine and ten times 

 the area of Germany, and almost three times that of the Mediter- 

 ranean, exclusive of the Black Sea. From the best and most recent 

 intelligence, for which we are indebted to the French Colonel 

 Daumas and MM. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, we learn that the 

 Desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that 

 the number and the population of the fertile Oases are very much 

 greater than had been imagined from the awfully desert character 

 of the route between Insalah and Timbuctoo, and that from Mour- 

 zouk in Fezzan, to Bilma, Tirtuma, and Lake Tschad. It is now 

 generally affirmed that the sand covers only the smaller portion of 

 the great lowland. A similar opinion had been previously pro- 

 pounded by the acutely observant Ehrenberg, my Siberian travelling 

 companion, from what he had himself seen (Exploration Scientifique 

 de TAlgerie, Hist, et Geogr. t. ii. p. 332). Of larger wild animals, 

 only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met with. " Le 

 lion du desert," says M. Carette, (Explor. de TAlg. t, ii. pp. 

 126-129; t. vii. pp. 94 and 97,) "est un mythe popularise par les 

 artistes et les poetes. II n'existe que dans leur imagination. Cet 

 animal ne sort pas de sa montagne ou il trouve de quoi se loger, 

 s'abreuver et se nourrir. Quand on parle aux habitans du desert 

 de ces b6tes feroces que les Europe'ens leur donnent pour compag- 

 nons, ils repondent avec un imperturbable sang froid, il y a done chez 

 vous des lions qui boivent de Fair et broutent des feuilles ? Chez nous 



