GARDENS OF THE OASES. 413 



tree of our dim climates. Vines also are entwined from one 

 date tree to another; while maize, bending under its heavy 

 cobs, wheat, barley, tobacco, etc., fill all gaps in these admir- 

 able gardens, of which the most graceful ornament is still 

 the plume of sombre green which crowns the date trees, and 

 matches itself so admirably to the azure of a sky without a 

 cloud."* 



Not an inch of ground susceptible of cultivation is 

 thus wasted, and where the oasis is of small extent 

 the village is usually located upon sterile ground, ad- 

 joining its margin, and looking out upon the desert. 



At some of the smaller oases the water supply is, 

 however, both scanty and indifferent and at important 

 points on some of the Trans-Saharian caravan routes, 

 the French government of Algeria has endeavoured to 

 supplement the supply by artificial means; and in a 

 good many instances this has been effected with strik- 

 ing success by means of Artesian wells. 



These wells, which are now common in many 

 parts of the world, took their name from the pro- 

 vince of Artois, in France, where the first well, 

 on the Artesian principle, was constructed; this prac- 

 tice of boring for water having been adopted there at 

 a very early period : the most ancient of these wells, whose 

 date can be authenticated, being at Lillers in Artois, 

 and supposed to have been executed in 11264 



The introduction of the Artesian principle by the 

 French government for supplying the oases of the 

 Sahara with water, it is possible, may eventually lead 

 to results of the highest importance, both from a po- 



* Le Desert et Le Soudan, par M. le Comte D'Escayrac de 

 Lauture, 1853, pp. 15, 16. 



j- See Treatise on Well-digging, Boring, etc., by J. G. Swindell and 

 G. R. Burnell, C.E., 1854, p. 3. 



