ASPECTS OF NATURE IN THE SAHARA. 579 



to the sun the heat that they have received from the fiery luminary, 

 and hordes of wandering Tuaregs, armed with gun and spear, still 

 patrol the caravan* ways that penetrate to the interior. 



With all the wild, fitful, and forbidding Nature that belongs to 

 the Sahara, it has also its elements of peace and good will. The 

 cheer of a green oasis is, indeed, one of its first greetings, and long 

 before the great flat expanse of sand is reached the traveler ap- 

 proaching from the north looks down upon an island of emerald 

 verdure. The oasis of El-Kantara, the " first oasis " of the desert on 

 the great caravan route leading to Lake Tchad, backs up its sea of 

 palms to the very walls of the Great Atlas, and far into the gateway 

 itself the feathered dates scatter themselves to meet the poplars from 

 the north. How different, then, is this first view of the Sahara from 

 that which the mind had pictured! It was late in the afternoon of 

 an early September day, with the thermometer steadily rising from 

 perhaps 92 to 98, that we approached this land of true Africa. 

 The bare and rugged rocks roll off from either side of us, to mingle 

 with the almost endless wilderness of bowlders which cover the 

 mountain foot, far off to the limits of vision. "We pass caravans and 

 parts of caravans, the swarthy children of the South contemplating 

 our passage with at least the interest with which we drink in their 

 picturesque garbs, the complacently meditating camels, the trains 

 of yelping Arab curs, and children galore. How different the two 

 modes of travel, and what feelings must the contrast inspire within 

 the minds of these poor toilers of the desert sands ! 



A few days after our first approach to El-Kantara we returned to 

 it for the purpose of better studying the character of this first oasis 

 of the desert, and of entering into that delightful pursuit of search- 

 ing for the evidences of past life in the neighborhood. We had been 

 informed that fossils, mainly of a marine type, with beds of giant 

 oysters, were to be found here, and, indeed, under the guidance of 

 two Arabs who were well familiar with the region it did not take 

 long to verify the statement that was made to us. The mountain 

 slopes, especially where they had been furrowed into successive lines 

 of depression and elevation, were teeming with the fossilized parts of 

 an ancient fauna of the sea; sea urchins and oysters were particu- 

 larly abundant, and their beautiful state of preservation added not a 

 little to the delight of gathering specimens of their kind on the bor- 

 ders of a relentless desert. 



To those who still conceive an oasis to be a gathering of a mere 

 hundred or so of palm trees, protecting in its shade a basin of water 

 that is hardly sufficient to quench the thirst of a few dismal-looking 

 men and animals that may have straggled to it, the impression pro- 

 duced by the oasis of El-Kantara will be a pleasantly and re- 



