2 Introductory 



with spots of fertility surrounded by a hrown and, burning 

 desert.' 



As a matter of fact, nothing could 'more wildly mis- 

 represent the truth ' than this description ; but it was 

 written before the interior of Africa had been explored, 

 and the old geographers, feeling, it would seem, obliged 

 to say something, were very much in the habit of 

 writing 'desert' across those regions of the earth which 

 were to them 'unknown.' 



These imaginary deserts, which once occupied so 

 large a space in our maps, are, however, fast shrinking 

 and dwindling away before the face of the explorer, 

 until there are few, if any, left. The last so-called 

 desert in America was that to the west of the United 

 States, and that vanished some five-and-twenty years 

 ago, when Mr. Hepworth Dixon said of it: 'It has 

 retreated further and further, and has taken its last 

 stand behind the Missouri, where I faced it, and now I 

 can assure you that I have been right through the Great 

 Prairie, and desert there is none. The prairie is the 

 pasture-land of the world' — all ready prepared, that is, 

 to afford an ample livelihood to man's flocks and herds 

 as soon as he should choose to make use of it ; and 

 certainly, therefore, no desert, though * only an Indian 

 hunting-ground ' ! 



But still, it may be said, there is a wide difference 

 between a desert and a farm. If the prairie is not 

 bare, at least it is uncultivated ; and the word ' farm ' 

 suggests the idea of ploughs and harrows, orderly 

 crops, sheep and cattle. Very true; but because 

 nature farms in ways of her own, on a large scale and 

 without fuss, while man farms in his way on a small 

 one, and lets all the world know what he is doing, is 



