THE OASES OF THE DESERT.
This desolation of the Sahara would be of such a nature that nothing, either in the animal or vegetable world, could survive, were it not for the fertile tracts, or oases, found at intervals throughout its whole extent.
These oases, or roadies, as they are sometimes called, are caused by subterranean, or underground, springs. Oases are more common in the eastern part of the Sahara than in the other sections.
OASIS IN THE SAHARA.
Oases differ in character. Sometimes they are mere patches, covered with bushes and coarse grass, usually surrounding a spring. More often they are tracts of rare beauty and of great fertility, with a good supply of water.
In traveling through the Great Desert, the easiest route is from Tripoli, through the kingdoms of Fezzan, to Lake Tchad. The kingdom of Fezzan is favored as to climate. It has periodical rains, on account of the moist winds which blow from the Mediterranean Sea. These seem to extend farther inland here than in any other part of the continent.
East of this route across the Sahara there is a portion of the desert called the Libyan Desert. Oases are, in this section, very easily cultivated. In the western section of the Sahara the land of the oases is fit only for pasturing goats and sheep.
In some of these more fertile oases of the eastern sections, thousands of inhabitants may be found living in comfortable villages. There may be found the date palm in cultivation, together with other fruits and some grains. Gum arabic is also a product of this region. It is obtained from the sap which exudes from the trunk of the acacia tree.
Commerce across the Great Desert is not carried on without difficulty and danger. There are various routes over which caravans of from five hundred to two thousand camels and their drivers travel.
The distance between the springs, or wells, is frequently more than a ten-days' journey. Often such a spring is reached only to be found dry, and then both the men and the animals are in danger of perishing for lack of water.
We, who are so accustomed to an abundance of fresh water, can scarcely realize how it would seem to travel with one of these caravans, and to be able to quench our thirst only from the supply of water carried in leather bags slung from the sides of the patient camels. A glass of water that has stood over night does not seem very palatable to us; yet, doubtless, it would seem refreshing compared with water that had been carried in a leather bag for ten days, exposed to the burning heat of the desert's sands and sun.
A wise Providence has fitted the camel with a special paunch, or stomach, the cells of which it fills with water before starting out on one of these journeys. This supply has to suffice for its needs until more water can be obtained from some distant spring. It has been stated that the cells of the camel's stomach can absorb and hold upwards of a gallon of water when the animal is preparing to start out upon one of its long journeys across the desert.
Should a caravan, in crossing the desert, reach a spring or well, the waters of which had run dry, perhaps the life of one of the camels would have to be sacrificed, in the hope of getting a supply of water from its stomach. This water would be all that the drivers would have with which to sustain life until another spring could be reached.
Nature has fitted the camel most admirably for its desert home. In addition to its true stomach, with its peculiar cell-like lining, it has a second stomach, or honeycombed paunch. These are both capable of holding a large supply of water.
The hump of the camel is another wise provision to enable the animal to endure the hardships of its long journeys, often on a very short supply of food. A few beans, dates, or carob pods are all the camel receives after a long day's march, when there is no herbage on which it can browse.
Shrubby plants, such as the camel's thorn, of which the animal is very fond, are all that the sterile sands of the desert can produce for its needs.
The drivers and owners of the camels look very carefully to the condition of the hump of each animal before starting out on a march across the desert.
The hump is really a storehouse for fat. When plump and well rounded, it indicates that the animal is in perfect health. If, after a long march, this hump becomes wasted, whether because the animal has become exhausted, or because he has had insufficient food, it is often necessary to prescribe complete rest. Even with an abundance of food, and no work to do, it may take three or four months before the camel is restored to perfect health and full powers of endurance, as indicated by its firm, plump hump.
The foot of the camel is formed to keep it from sinking in the sand. It is furnished with an extended pad, or cushion. This pad is protected from the heat of the burning sands by means of a thick sole.
The skin on the chest and kneejoints is thickened into what are called callosities. It is upon these that the camel rests when it lies down, or when it kneels to receive a load.
The camel has been called the ship of the desert. It can carry twice the load of a mule. It travels slowly, yet it moves at a steady, uniform pace. It can thus travel for hundreds and hundreds of miles at the rate of two miles and a half an hour.
The motion of the camel is most peculiar. It is a swaying from side to side, not at all agreeable to one unaccustomed to riding upon its back.
This motion is caused by the camel moving both feet on a side at once. In this way, first one side of its body is thrown forward, then the other.
To protect the camel against the shifting sands and the burning heat of the sun, nature has further fitted it for its peculiar home and life. It has the power to close its nostrils at will to keep out the sand. Long lashes protect its eyes, not only from the storms of wind and sand, but also from the glare and the heat.
From time immemorial the camel has been known as the beast of burden in India, Arabia, and Africa. This species, the one-humped camel, or dromedary, differs somewhat from that having two humps. The latter has been found in Central Asia, Persia, and the south of Russia.
Recently a report has been received from St. Petersburg that wild camels have been discovered in large quantities in a district of Asia; but nowhere in history do we read of camels that are not domesticated.
The sculptures of Assyria depict both species. The patient animal is mentioned in the oldest books of the Bible. Many of our pleasantest associations in connection with our earliest Bible lessons center about this animal, in connection with "the wise men of the East," and other scenes connected with the birth and early life of our Saviour.