] 14 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



the west, about a degree south of Mogador, the Atlas 

 declines in height : this south-westernmost part bears the 

 name of Idrar-N-Deren. x 



The northern Mauritanian boundaries of the widely 

 extended low region of the Sahara, as well as its southern 

 limits towards the fertile Soudan, are still ,but little known. 

 If we take on a mean estimation the parallels of 16J and 

 32J as the outside limits, we obtain for the Desert, 

 including its Oases, an area of more than 118500 square 

 German geographical miles ; or between nine and ten times 

 the area of Germany, and almost three times that of the 

 Mediterranean exclusive of the Black Sea. From the 

 best and most recent intelligence, for which we are indebted 

 to the French Colonel Daumas and MM. Fournel, Kenou, 

 and Carette, we learn that the desert of Sahara is composed 

 of several detached basins, and that the number and the 

 population of the fertile Oases is very much greater than had 

 been imagined from the awfully desert character of the 

 route between Insalah and Timbuctoo, and that from 

 Mourzouk in Fezzan, to Bilma, Tirtuma, and Lake 

 Tschad. It is now generally affirmed that the sand covers 

 only the smaller portion of. the great lowland. A similar 

 opinion had been previously propounded by the acutely 

 observant Ehrenberg, my Siberian travelling companion, 

 from what he had himself seen (Exploration Scientifique de 

 1'Algerie, Hist, et Geogr. T. ii. p. 332). Of larger wild 

 animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be 

 met with. " Le lion du desert," says M. Carette, (Explor. 

 del'Alg. T. ii. p. 126-129; T. vii. p. 94 and 97), "est 

 im mvthe popularise par les artistes et les poetes. II 



