The Zoologist — August, 1871. 2721 



Men, women and children toil in the gardens, even in the noon- 

 tide hours, when no European could venture out of doors without 

 imminent risk of a sunstroke. A different system of irrigation is 

 pursued at Laghouat, where the water lies on the surface. 



Having with difEculty obtained some gunpowder, for the French 

 are not allowed to sell it to the Arabs under any pretence, T went 

 out shooting. The Egyptian turtle dove was so common that I had 

 only to take my stand in a garden, and load and fire until enough 

 had been killed. Directly a bird falls the Arabs rush up to it; 

 their object is to cut its throat before it dies. Of course they ruin 

 everything for stuffing. I soon found out that they would never 

 cook a dove which did not die by the knife. Every house was 

 tenanted by house buntings : they nest in the large square court, 

 and I think the eggs must be deposited in March; they are rather 

 like sparrows' eggs, but rounder : the nest is composed of little 

 sticks and twigs, and lined with hair. 



On the 14lh news came that the Touareg, a lawless tribe of 

 robbers, were assembling in force on the Waragla route: this did 

 not alarm us, but the following day a letter was brought to me (in 

 Arabic) with tidings of a great camel razzia at Zergoun (which, 

 though not in our road, lay to the north of us), in which 2000 

 camels had been carried off, and, it was said, six men killed ; but 

 as the Arabs habitually exaggerate I did not place much reliance 

 on this latter statement. The Spahis* were in hot pursuit, but 

 with little chance of coming up with the fugitives. Trusting that 

 they would not come our way, we on the 16lh left Berryan and 

 travelled to Gardaia, which is the chief city of the Mzab confedera- 

 tion. Our route lay through a dreary tract of country, — stony, 

 brown and mountainous, — save, at rare intervals, where the dull 

 prospect was perhaps suddenly broken by a patch of green, formed 

 by the rain collecting in a hollow, but these fresh spots were kw 

 and far between. And now, by narrow defiles, our cavalcade drew 

 near this Mozabite capital. I could not help thinking, as often as 

 I reined in my mule, what awful havoc the long guns of the Arabs 

 would make with an invading army in such a place ; and no doubt, 

 for them, many a winding pass here teems with historic interest. 



The bullet-marks on the walls testify that the city itself has 

 figured in many a sanguinary conflict. Standing upon a gentle 

 eminence, crowned by the never-failing mosque, its flat-roofed 



* The Spahis are Arab soldiers in the French pay. 



