DESERT JOURNEYS. 331 



hollows, finally, the dust forms a soil, and there one is sure to find 

 the reed-like, but very hard, dry, sharp, dark-green alfa, umbrella- 

 shaped mimosas, and perhaps even torn-palms, pleasant assurances 

 of life 



But of animal life also there is distinct evidence. To think of 

 the desert as a dead solitude is as erroneous as to call it the home 

 of lions. It is too poor to support lions, but it is rich enough for 

 thousands of other animals. And all these are in a high degree 

 remarkable, for in every respect they prove themselves the true 

 children of the desert. 



It is not merely that their colouring is always most precisely 

 congruent with the dominant colour of the ground, that is generally 

 tawny, but the desert animals are marked by their light and 

 delicate build, by their strikingly large and unusually acute eyes 

 and ears, and by a behaviour which is as unassuming as it is self- 

 possessed. It is the lot of all creatures born in the desert to be 

 restless wanderers, for sufficient food cannot be found all the year 

 round at one place, and the children of the desert are endowed 

 with incomparable agility, indefatigable endurance, untiring per- 

 sistence; their senses are sharpened so that the pittance which is 

 offered is never overlooked, and their clothing is adapted to conceal 

 them alike in flight or in attack. If their life is perhaps somewhat 

 hard, it is certainly not joyless. 



The fact that almost all the desert animals agree in colouring 

 with their surroundings explains why the traveller, who is not an 

 experienced observer, often sees, at first at least, but little of the 

 animal life. Moreover, the desert seems far poorer than it is, since 

 it is not till dusk that most of its tenants leave their places of rest 

 and concealment and begin to be lively. Some, however, force 

 themselves on the attention of the least observant. Even though 

 the traveller may fail to notice the various species of desert-lark 

 which cross his path everywhere, and are noteworthy for their 

 likeness to the ground and for their extraordinarily developed 

 powers of flight, he cannot possibly overlook the sand-grouse; and 

 though he may ride unobserving over the burrows of the jerboas, 

 he is sure to observe a gazelle feeding not far from his path. 



