CHAPTER IV. 
TRAVELS IN THE SAHARA, OR GREAT DESERT. 
General Vietv of the Great Desert — Adventures of Saugnier. 
— The Monselemines. — The Mongearts. — Brisson, — The 
Ouadelim and Labdesseba, 
The Great Desert, or Sahara, comprehends all 
that extent of land which lies between the narrow 
stripe of Barbary, and that fertile track stretching 
across the centre of Africa, which Europeans term 
Nigritia, and the Africans Soudan and AfFnoo. 
It presents a surface equal in extent to nearly 
One-half of Europe, containing islands of great 
fertility and population, from which its different 
parts derive their names, as the deserts of Barca, 
Bilma, Bornou Sort, &c. Its western division, 
contained between Fezzan and the Atlantic, is 
about 50 caravan journeys, or from 7^0 to 800 
geographical miles in breadth, from north to 
south, and double that extent in length. Amidst 
this vast sea of lifeless sand, the islands, or Oases, 
as they were termed by the ancients, are extreme- 
ly few, and of small extent ; but they are more 
numerous in the eastern division, where, besides 
many small ones, there are Fezzan Gadamis, Ta- 
