158 THE MOUTH OF THE DESERT. 



energies of a people who abstain from alcoholic liquors. You may 

 also remark pumpkins, gourds, and water-melons ; small squares of 

 lucerne, which yield as many as eight crops yearly ; the henna 

 (Lawsonia inermis), which tints with yellow the nails of the Arab 

 women ; and tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), cultivated most largely in 

 the Souf. In winter you may refresh your eyes in the clearings of 

 the oasis with verdurous fields, green with barleys and early wheats 

 springing vigorously from the earth. The cultivation of cotton, 

 though considerably stimulated by the failure of the usual supply 

 from the Southern States of America, is still in its infancy. There 

 can be little doubt, however, that with improved methods of irri- 

 gation it will be considerably and successfully developed. 



The oases of the table-land region, fertilized, as we have already 

 seen, by the streams of fresh water which flow down from the moun- 

 tains and spread abroad in natural or artificial channels, are much 

 the most fertile, and also the most healthy. They possess, moreover, 

 the inestimable advantage of being but a short distance from the 

 Mediterranean region, in a country less arid and less desolate than 

 the remainder of the Desert.- I may name, among these oases, those 

 of El-Kantara, Biskra, and El-Outa'ia, which form a sort of chaplet, 

 and are watered by the same river. 



The oasis of El-Kantara is the first we encounter on quitting the 

 Mediterranean region to penetrate into the Sahara through the 

 gloomy and precipitous ravine, entitled " The Mouth of the Desert." 

 It is situated 1800 feet above the sea-level. Its length is 5000 

 yards. Fournel, the first geologist who examined it (in 1864), chris- 

 tened it the Hyeres of the Sahara. Its temperature is cool and 

 equable, and does but just suffice to enable the dates to ripen. It 

 possesses upwards of 76,000 palm-trees, sheltering under their leafy 

 shadow legions of apricots, pomegranates, and fig-trees. In the 

 centre of this pleasant and fruitful shade houses of brick, with flat 

 roofs and narrow loop-holed windows, surround a square tower. The 

 ancient watch-towers have fallen into decay. Before France took 



