8o CHARMS OF THE DESERT NIGHT. 



vermin. During the hot season the nights are cool and de- 

 lightful . There is not one drop of dew, and we live entirely 

 in the open air, beneath the shade of a tree in the day, and 

 under a roof of glittering stars at night. The guns never 

 rust, though lying on the ground, and we are as independent 

 as the antelopes of the desert; any bush affording a home 

 within its limits of shelter" * 



and again, speaking of the night in the Soudan desert, 

 he states 



"There was an indescribable delight in the cool night, 

 when, in the perfect certainty of fine weather, we could rest 

 in the open air, with the clear bright starlit sky above us. 

 There were no mosquitoes; neither were there any of the 

 insect plagues of the tropics: the air was too dry for the 

 gnat tribe; and the moment of sunset was the signal for 

 perfect enjoyment."! 



These paragraphs describe in the clearest manner 

 the peculiar charm of night in these hot dry countries, 

 which afford, as we have already pointed out, a period 

 of cool and refreshing rest to both mind and body, 

 exhausted by the overpowering heat of the day and 

 we might amplify these facts, were that desirable, to 

 any extent, by quotations from the works of other 

 travellers. It is true that hot nights do sometimes occur, 

 but that is always, as we have explained, during the 

 prevalence of hot winds. 



These remarks upon dry atmosphere would, however, 

 be incomplete without some observations respecting 

 its action at high altitudes. 



In South America, and also in Thibet, table lands 

 of immense extent are met with, lying at elevations 



* Sir Samuel Baker, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, 1867, p. 185. 

 f Ibid., p. 36. 



