penetrating into these unknown regions. From the tops of these arid peaks, which have only here and there, at wide distances, narrow outlets, the traveller may contemplate those solitudes of sand to which the voice of the Almighty has said, as to the waves of the ocean, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no further." But if the Christian yet, for a time, renounce all thought of traversing the waste, the Arab, under the protection of the Musselman faith, fears no obstacles; and every year, allured by the temptation of gain, numerous caravans cross the desert, following still the same route that we find marked out in the itinerary of Herodotus.

The Arab, generally the most imperturbable of mortals, experiences, nevertheless, when about to traverse the desert, that kind of anxious bustle which takes possession of all men on the eve of a long sea voyage; for, in fact, the passage of the desert is like the voyage of a ship. The same organization and the same discipline must triumph over the same perils. There, as at sea, when the passage is dangerous, a convoy, or a reinforcement from another caravan, is waited for as a protection against robbers; and then the united bands quit their oasis home, and advance

fearlessly together. The respect which a European traveller gains from the natives on his return from one of these passages is a proof that the dangers and hardships to which he has exposed himself are not imaginary but real ones.

By order of our commandant we were now to turn our backs on these endless horizons, on these distant views of the interminable desert; but the impression their majestic grandeur had left on our minds was not quickly effaced. Often afterwards, under the tents of the nomade tribes of the Sahara, who in their adventurous expeditions come and go like the flux and reflux of the sea, sometimes touching on one shore, sometimes on another, have we questioned these wandering land mariners about the solitudes that had so captivated our imaginations. One day among others I recollect, after the repast of God had satisfied the hunger of the voyagers, an old pilot of the desert commenced a long recital; but it was time to retire to our hammocks before he had finished his story or given us any distinct knowledge of the country. War and its daily hazards separated us the next day, and since, for so according to the Arab dictum it was written, we have never met. This broken-off narrative had but excited my

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curiosity without satisfying it, when lately a book written by Colonel Damas fell into my hands, which contains the whole story of the old Arab, and which the Colonel had heard from one of his tribe. In reading this curious journal or log-book, I could almost fancy that I was listening again to the story-teller of the high plateaux; and having been, with a French column, at Abiot-Sidi-Chirq, one of the last oases of Sahara, I think you will feel as much interest as I did in following the route of this Arab voyager, who, plunging into the interior of the country, will lead you, after six months of incessant marches, hardships, and dangers to the kingdom of D'haoussa, more than eight hundred leagues from the sea shore.

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II.

A CARAVAN passing through Mételli, sets out every year from Abiot-Sidi-Chirq, where our column had bivouacked, for Soudan. This is the road the Arab narrator followed; but before we join him, it will be as well to throw a rapid glance over the country through which we are about to be his fellow travellers.

Africa, from the north to the centre, is divided into three distinct regions. The first known under the name of the Tell, ascends by constantly rising slopes into the district of the high lands. These plateaux called the Sahara, extend from the Tell to the desert, which has about the same level as the sea. The high lands feed innumerable flocks of sheep, and here and there are to be seen fortified towns, depôts of grain, and various objects of merchandise belonging to the nomade tribes. On the east of the oasis of the province of Oran, com

mences the country of the Beni-Mzab, which contains seven important cities, whose inhabitants are the intermediators in all the commerce of the south, and according to tradition, the descendants of the Moabites. It is certainly a fact that they have all blue eyes and light air, and that their language also differs from that of the Arabs. Though Schismatics, for they belong not to any of the authorised Musselman sects, their morality, union, and good faith are nevertheless generally respected, and, thanks to their activity, almost all commercial negotiations and transactions, not local, pass through their hands.

South of the plateaux of the Sahara, which runs parallel to the Tell and to the sea, the third region of Africa commences, the desert, not the desert of the French imagination, sand, sand, and continually sand-but immense plains stretching far out of sight, without water, without wood, or rather having only water at certain spots, which are necessarily halting places. Doubtless there are sands, and these, swept by tempests, often extend far, when they assume the most fantastic appearances, and are called sometimes veins, and sometimes nets, according to the forms and likenesses they are whirled into by the caprice of the