THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 35 
Taczanouski this Pipit was seen continually, (Zoologist, 
p. 2584) “from after the month of March.” 
21st. Our route lay between Zahrez and Sebka Zahrez, 
great shallow lakes, stated by Canon Tristram to be nearly 
thirty miles long in wet weather. I could not go near 
enough to them to see the myriads of Flamingos which he 
saw, but on one of the streams which flows into them I ob- 
served a Tern, probably of the White-winged species. At 
Rocher-de-Sel the soil becomes more sandy, while a frost- 
like whiteness coats the plain. After passing the Salt 
Mountains (from which the caravanserai takes its name), 
the country assumes a more fertile appearance. These 
mountains are worth a visit. Ata little distance they pre- 
sent a blue appearance. 
At Djelpha I witnessed an interesting spectacle. An 
Arab tribe with upwards of a hundred camels and numerous 
horses were getting ready for an expedition, and were 
having a grand review before starting. Tearing as hard as 
they could go over the plain in pairs, they suddenly caused 
their horses to swerve—one to the right, the other to the 
left—discharging, as they wheeled round, their long guns at 
the feet of the spectators. The white burnouses waving in 
the air, the clouds of dust, and the cries of the combatants, 
made this wild fantasia the more like a battle, while the 
eye was arrested by their swarthy visages and the splendid 
trappings of their horses. Eight gaudy palanquins (each 
borne by a camel, and surmounted with a bundle of sticks 
and a tuft of leaves,) contained the wives of the chief Agha. 
Doubtless mounted on his best Jahri* camels, they in the 
hour of battle would be kept in the rear, that they might be 
ready to escape into the wilderness, should the day go 
against their Bedouin lord. 
At this place Roman ruins terminate. None are known 
© The tall white Dromedary of the Touareg Arabs. 
