bled into our conveyance again, with ears and eyes all agape for the first real glimpse of the Great Desert. I caught "bits" now and again through the open window, which were eminently characteristic and picturesque. Stretches of long low land, quite orange in the sun-a line of camels, and the white figures of their gaunt drivers in high relief against the rosy hills, their lengthening shadows slanting blue and cool along the ground, a mass of colour rich and full, but blending and harmonious in its very brightness. As the sun lowered in the heavens, there was an incessant change in the effects, though the ever-varying blues and reds and violets scarce make up for the missing green. I never appreciated our own sweet meadow landscape so much as when gazing on these barren plains, gorgeous as they are, and dazzling in their vivid richness.

Tho

A few more jolts and bounds, and we were told to prepare for the sight par excellence. roughly on the qui vive by this time, we leapt out of our seats, and started off on foot for the turn of the hill from whence the promised view was to

THE GREAT SAHARA.

35

be obtained. Once there, we paused and gazed, and felt that it was indeed well worth the trouble of the journey. We stood on a high hill, from which could be traced the road winding down along the plain. On either side an amphitheatre of high and rocky mountains, their rugged tops cutting in sharp and jagged edge of intensely purple blue against a greenish yellow sky, lowering gradually, and blending by degrees into the far-off immensity of the Great Sahara, that stretched away in uncompromising line, and was lost, mingling with the horizon. The excessive peacefulness of the scene was most impressivethe sun setting gloriously in the west-a barren sea spread out before us, stern in its majesty, and calm in tranquil rest.

One's fancy will run riot on these occasions, and I could not but think, as I stood musing on the rock, of the numbers of nations and people that live on this great expanse, of the varieties of tongues and habits, of hopes and fears, of loves and animosities, congregated on this mighty plain, and wonder for what purpose they were created,

these hundreds of thousands of human atoms, living out their useless lives, and fretting out their petty passions-with what effect upon the outward world? Ignorant, savage, and brutal, of little use to mankind in general, and not much credit to their Maker. When will Christianity wake all these dormant souls to life? Will the day ever come, in the revolving cycle of nations' grandeur, on which the descendant of the despised African shall stand over the ruins of fallen Europe, and send forth edicts to the world?

We saw Biskra in the distance-a long belt of dark green foliage-its celebrated cypress towering like a giant sentinel above the lesser trees. As the brief twilight was rapidly turning into night, we got into our vehicle once more, and watched from its window the ever-changing colouring with interest and pleasure. There was a silvery shimmer on the foreground stones, as if reflected from some unseen light, which gave an uncertainty and atmosphere to the mass, in spite of the real distinctness of each bit of rock, that to my mind successfully disproved the theory of Pre-Raphaelitism.

A lovely sky behind the purpling hills gradated from a delicate green through red and yellow up to turquoise blue, flecked here and there with a light grey cloud just tipped with gold and crimson. As we drove into Biskra we passed through groves of feathery palms, tall and black against a blood-red sky, and were not sorry to find dinner awaiting us in the hospitable salle-à-manger of the Hôtel du Sahara.

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CHAPTER XIV.

BISKRA.

THE Sahara is divided into three parts, or great

divisions.

The Central part is occupied by the Touaregs, a race similar to the Kabyles.

The Western portion is an assembly of ancient tribes that migrated from the north in the eighth century.

The Eastern part is occupied by the remnants of the black races that once inhabited all North Africa.

The surface of the desert is far from being the sandy waste which in my ignorance I had expected to see. It undulates generally into waves covered with stones and little rocks, and well furnished with a scrubby grey-looking attempt at vegetation.