42 ANIMAL LIFE IN DESERTS 



In places where sand overlies an impervious 

 rock, copious water is available for the cultivation 

 of deep-rooted plants, which flourish when once 

 they are established. Just to the south of Jaffa, 

 in Palestine, is a large area of shifting dunes, with 

 a sparse flora and fauna, closely adapted to their 

 environment. The land was in fact indubitable 

 desert until certain astute people discovered that 

 vines would grow luxuriantly in depressions among 

 the dunes. In these places water can be obtained 

 at all seasons by sinking wells to about 6-8 feet, 

 and when once the young vines are established 

 they grow well and produce grapes in the dry, hot 

 autumn, at a time when the dunes appear a little 

 more dry and barren than usual. 



Another plant which grows well in deep sand is 

 the date palm. Its root system attains a remark- 

 able length while the plant is still yoimg and smaU, 

 and reaches deep-lying supplies of water. Hartert 

 and other travellers have described the conditions 

 of date culture at El Wed in the Algerian Sahara 

 (Figs. 10 and 12). The town and gardens are in 

 imminent danger of being overwhelmed by moving 

 dunes, and are constantly afflicted by violent sand- 

 storms. Subsoil water is plentiful at a considerable 

 depth in the sand, and the inhabitants excavate 

 large pits in the sand, and at the bottom plant 

 offsets of palms. At first watering by hand is 

 necessary, but after a few months the young palm's 

 roots reach the subsoil water : the owner's task then 

 is to remove the sand which threatens to cover 

 his trees, and at this task he labours almost un- 



