But these are just what the goats, who are fiends from a vegetable point of view, have been unable to destroy. We cannot tell what sort of country revealed itself to the first Phœnicians when they landed in Southern Spain to traffic with the savage inhabitants, or what met the eyes of Ulysses when he made his great voyage to unknown lands.
But there are places in the world where man has never either kept domestic animals or cultivated the soil. Possibly Spain and Sicily in those early days were not unlike parts of British East Africa, such as the Taru Desert between Mombasa and Kibwezi.
The following may give an idea of how this scrub or desert appeared to me.
Gnarled and twisted acacias of all sorts and sizes, usually with bright white bark and a thin, naked appearance, cover the whole country. Amongst these one finds the curious trees of Euphorbia. In Britain Euphorbias are little green uninteresting weeds, but here some of them are twenty to thirty feet high, with many slender whip-like branches, but no leaves. Others are exactly like Cactus, and take on weird, candelabra-like shapes. Nobody meddles with them for, if the slightest cut is made in the bark, out pours an acrid, white milk which raises painful blisters, and may even cause blindness if a drop touches the eyes.
Almost all the plants are either covered with thorns or protected by resins, gums, or poisonous secretions.
Between the scrubby trees the soil is dotted over by little tufts of grass or sedge, but these are so far apart that the tint of the landscape is that of the soil.
Game is abundant everywhere. Sometimes it is a small bustard or a persistent, raucous guinea-fowl that affords a chance for a good dinner. Occasionally a tiny gazelle, the "paa," with large ears, springs out of the thorns and vanishes down the path. I saw footprints of giraffes, and came across ostriches more than once. I also made a persevering attempt to slay a Clarke's gazelle, an animal with enormous ears and a long thin neck.[45]
These long-necked creatures can see far above the usual short thorny bush, and it is exceeding difficult to get near them. Water probably exists under the stony grit soil, but at present one has to be contented with that found in the stagnant pools at Taru, Maungu, etc., which, if not occupied by the decaying remains of a dead antelope, are, as a rule, drinkable.[46]
These acacias are quite well fitted to live in this dry and arid region. Their roots go down to twenty feet or more, so as to reach the deep-seated water supplies.
Their leaves are generally adapted to resist any injury from the strong glare of the sunshine. The gums, already alluded to, are also very important, for any crack or break in the tree is promptly gummed up, and there is no loss of precious water thereby. This gum will also prevent or discourage burrowing and boring insects from getting in; they would, if they tried to do so, become "flies in amber," like those found in fossil resin. The trees are generally provided with strong spines, which guard them from the many grazing animals which try to devour the succulent leaflets.