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that it was reported to live in the sand. I heard a French name for it for the first time, 
‘ Gazelle des sables.’ 
“ As my friend Mr. Alfred Pease was spending a second winter at Biskra and had 
made the acquaintance of several native hunters, I requested him to try what he could 
do to find out the habitat of the Reem. About Christmas-time last year he wrote to 
me that he believed he had reliable information that the Reem was to be found in the 
desert near Chegga, only about 50 kilometres south of Biskra on the caravan-route to 
Touggourt. 
“We made arrangements for a camping trip, and I Jeft England on February Ist, and 
started from Biskra with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Pease on February 8th of this year. 
“After two days’ marching we got to Chegga and made inquiries respecting the 
Reem. No one seemed to know anything about the animal except one Arab, who said 
that if we went on farther south we should come to a place called Ain Gebberah, where 
there were a few Reem, but if we went on still farther to Hamraia we should find the 
Reem in quantities. 
“We therefore travelled on for two or three more days until we came to Hamraia, 
but on making inquiries about the Reem the answers were very unsatisfactory. We 
determined, however, before giving up the search, to stay here a day to hunt and see 
what game there was in this part of the desert. 
‘In the early morning of the next day Pease started off from camp with an Arab in 
one direction, while I went off in the other. By the evening we had covered a 
considerable extent of country and had used our glasses from every available rise in the 
ground. We saw several small herds of Gazella dorcas, but no tracks even of any other 
Gazelle. We did not seem to be any nearer to obtaining a Reem than when we started 
from Biskra, 
“ At night, when we got back to camp, we were told that a negro camel-herd had 
been there during the day, and had said that we were not at all in the right country for 
Reem, that he was well acquainted with the animal and knew where it was to be found. 
He came into camp again the next morning and told us that the Reem had long slender 
hoofs and tender feet, lived only in the soft sand, and would be unable to run on hard 
stony desert such as that round Hamraia. He said he could take us to the Reem 
country, in rolling sand-hills, but we should not be able to camp very near as there was . 
no water for our horses and pack-animals. 
“We agreed to go with him, and he led us a day’s march still farther south towards 
the Oued Souf, and then turned off the caravan-track to the east and chose a camp in 
the sand about an hour and a half from water. (Almost all the water in the desert is 
brackish and bad, but the water here was positively nasty.) 
“The next morning we left camp very early on horseback, with the negro on foot and 
an Arab hunter riding a mule. The negro led the way at a tremendous pace, keeping 
up a good trot in the soft sand and sometimes running fast for a couple of miles 
without a stop across the dry arm of a chott, keeping us at a hand-gallop most of the 
time. 
“« After two hours and a half the negro pointed out the first track of the Reem, which 
