THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 351 



meets us here as elsewhere. According to the French 

 General Daumas whose map of the Sahara Algerien, 

 engraved under the direction of the French War Office, 

 has always been considered a leading authority on 

 these matters, 



"The desert comes up, in the region placed to the south 

 of Oran and Tlemsen, between the 32nd and 2Qth parallels 

 of latitude, under the name of ' Djebel Batten '. The line 

 of the watershed follows this direction and there presents 

 two great inclines, one towards the Sea, and the other towards 

 the interior of the Sahara " * but the General goes on to 

 explain that " from the 291)1 parallel of latitude we are in 

 the desert technically called ' El Falat\ Life seems to cease 

 until the 27th, where it reappears for a moment in the 

 mountains of Touareg, and then disappears entirely, as far 

 as the Soudan or the country of the Negroes. " f 



Here it may be well to explain that the word 

 " Sahara " does not by any means necessarily imply an 

 uninhabitable desert, but rather a vast low-lying plain 

 of sand or grass and large tracts upon its northern 

 frontier consist, at certain seasons, of well watered pasture 

 lands, as the number of " wadt's, " or streams, marked 

 upon the map, conclusively shows, but after the cessa- 

 tion of the rains, these waters quickly dry up; thus 

 compelling the abandonment of the greater part of 

 these plains; the Arabs being then obliged either to 

 migrate into the hills, or to retire into the numerous 

 oases, where permanent fountains exist. 



Not to be too prolix and technical upon a matter 

 which has given rise to a great deal of controversy 

 even among the tolba, or literary Arabs, themselves 



* Le Sahara Algerien, Etudes sur la region au Sud des Etablissements 

 Frar^ais en Algerie, par le Lieut.-Col. Daumas, published 1845, p. 4. 

 f Ibid., p. 5. 



