293 
patriarch with large and well-fed herds. Here we might not cut trees. 
The patriach’s hospitality was confined to letting Hes camels eat what. 
ey could etch without help of axe nly as a concession to the 
ranger we might with the crooks bend down eg and hold them 
while the camel fed. ‘This old man was, in Arab parlance, “ kerhan," 
that is, an hermit from the Nile. He and his UER ai had for genera- 
tions lived here. It was one of their many valleys, the one in which 
the water supply lasted longest. When the rains fell he spread abroad 
into other valleys, leaving this one to grow against the time when he 
should by drought be driven to return to it. But his offspring had 
fallen few, and the lower part of the valley had been taken by a family 
se roots were in the Nile Valley. 
To sum up all the facts which I have urged in the preceding pages. 
. It seems clear that in the camel nature has created a Frankenstein which. 
in this country is gradually devouring her. And it seems that what is 
applicable to this country is applicable to all countries where soil and 
climate are fit to produce wild shrubs but not fit to support cultivation. 
It seems that Nature is being slowly but surely beaten by the camel and 
his inevitable but improvident companicn the axe Nature tights hard. 
This year copious rains have fallen in the mountains, but the reply of 
hee 
aih and cow, and the Balanites follow the een or Taberne- 
Theré i is more truth than appears at first sight in the story told by the 
Arabs to travellers in Palestine. They say, a and they generally say it as 
a joke, that there were formerly lions in Palestine, and that they were 
frightened riod by the € It is probable that the camel has 
. expelled the lion from Palestine, not by roaring, but by consuming the 
shrubs wiek. nipid the lion s prey : 

CCLXXXIII.—TAJ GARDENS, AGRA. 
The Taj Mahal or commonly the Taj at Agra is described in the 
Imperial Gazetteer of India * as the most exquisite piece 
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and IAY in 1648. The materials are white marble from Jaipur. 
and red sandstone from Fatehpur Sikri. The complexity of its designs 
The 
proportions. Beneath the great dome an enclosure of marble trellis- 
ork surrounds the tombs of the princess and of her husband the 
Emperor. 
“The Taj represents the most highly elaborated stage of ornamenta- 
tion reached by the Indo-Muhamma — T the stage at which 
the piis ends and the jeweller : 
om the pillared pavilions a agni iios nt view is obtained of the 
Taj gardens below, with the noble J umna river at the further end and 
the city and fort of Agra in the distance 
