Tower in Agades. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE SAHARA. 



Its uncertain Limits — Caravan Koutes — Ephemeral Streams — Oases — Inunda- 

 tions — Luxuriant Vegetation of the Oases contrasted with the surrounding Desert 

 — The Sedentary and Vagrant Tribes — Harsh contrasts of Light and Shade — 

 Sublimity of the Desert — The Khamsin — The Dying Slave — Sand-Spouts — 

 Venomous Snakes — Porcupine-catching — Chase of the Gazelle — Fluctuation 

 of Animal Life according to the Seasons. 



FROM the Nile to the Senegal, and from the vicinity of 

 Agades or of Timbuctoo to the southern slopes of the Atlas, 

 extends the desert, which above all others has been named the 

 Great. 



Surpassing the neighbouring Mediterranean at least three 

 times in extent, and partly situated within the tropical zone, 

 partly bordering on its confines, its limits are in many places 

 as undetermined as the depths of its hidden solitudes. For 

 from the mountain chains which separate it in the north from 



