CHAPTER II 



THE MAKE OF THE DESERT 



THE first going - down into the desert is 

 always something of a surprise. The fancy 

 has pictured one thing ; the reality shows quite 

 another thing. Where and how did we gain 

 the idea that the desert was merely a sea of 

 sand ? Did it come from that geography of our 

 youth with the illustration of the sand-storm, 

 the flying camel, and the over-excited Bedouin ? 

 Or have we been reading strange tales told by 

 travellers of perfervid imagination the Marco 

 Polos of to-day ? There is, to be sure, some 

 modicum of truth even in the statement that 

 misleads. There are " seas " or lakes or ponds 

 of sand on every desert ; but they are not so 

 vast, not so oceanic, that you ever lose sight of 

 the land. 



What land ? Why, the mountains. The 

 desert is traversed by many mountain ranges, 

 some of them long, some short, some low, and 

 some rising upward ten thousand feet. They 



Sea of sand. 



Mountain 

 ranges on 

 the desert 



