xv HOME LIFE AND TRAVELS 377 



There is a wonderful charm about Biskra. The 

 sharp air of the desert, the cloudless skies and bright 

 sunshine, the luxuriance of the palms, the running 

 waters flowing through the gardens, the outdoor life of 

 the Arabs, free, but under the ever-watchful domina- 

 tion of the French, all tend to give an especial interest 

 to the place. 



The Sahara, which surrounds Biskra on all sides, 

 stretching for hundreds of miles to the south and east, 

 is by no means an uninhabited desert, for villages and 

 towns are scattered around wherever the necessary 

 supply of life-giving water is to be had. And streams 

 are not scarce at the foot of the hills, whilst now, 

 where this supply is wanting, the French engineers, 

 by sinking artesian wells, are creating new oases and 

 improving the old ones. They have shown that in 

 many places below the sand and stone of the Sahara 

 an underground supply of the precious liquid can be 

 obtained, and modern science has thus accomplished a 

 miracle rivalling that of Moses striking the rock. 



From the descriptions of novelists, and from photo- 

 graphs and pictures on the spot, it might be imagined 

 that the palm gardens were as charming as similar well- 

 known haunts of delight on the Riviera. It is a rude 

 awakening to find that these are anything but pleasure 

 gardens, for round the stem of each of these gigantic 

 palms is a deep pit, into which, from time to time, 

 water from the river is allowed to flow. There are 

 no grassy or mossy lawns, for between the palms the 

 Arab grows his cabbages, maize, and tobacco. The 

 roads in the environs of Biskra are few and bad ; there 

 are tracks which may be followed on mule or camel- 

 back, and a few of the better sort can be used for 

 wheeled vehicles. There is no bridge across the 

 river, which sometimes is a roaring flood and at other 



