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Show ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 103 tion Scientifique de 1' Algerie de 1840 11 1842, publiee par ordre du Gouvernement, Sciences Hi t. et Geogr. t. viii. 1846, pp. 364 and 373,) attained an elevation of10,700 Fr. (11,400 Eng.) feet; exceeding, therefore, the height of Etna. A singularly formed highland of an almost square shape (Sahab el Marga), bounded on the south by higher elevations, is situated in 33° lat. From thence towards the sea to the west, about a degree south of Mogador, the Atlas declines in height: this south-westernmost part bears the name of Idrar-N-Deren. The northern Mauritanian boundaries of the widely extended low region of the Sahara, as well as its southern limits towards the fertile Soudan, are still but little known. If we take on a mean estimation the parallels of 16~ 0 and 32~ 0 as the outside limits, we obtain for the Desert, including its Oases, an area of more than 118,500 square German geographical miles; or between nine and ten times the area of Germany, and almost three times that of the Mediterranean, exclusive of the Black Sea. From the best and most recent intelligence, for which we are indebted to the French Colonel Daumas and MM. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, we learn that the Desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and the population of the fertile Oases are very much greater than had been imagined from the awfully desert character of the route between Insalah and Timbuctoo, and that from Mourzouk in Fezzan, to Bilma, Tirtuma, and Lake Tschad. It is now generally affirmed that the sand covers only the smaller portion of the great lowland. A similar opinion had been previously propounded by the acutely observant Ehrenberg, my Siberian travelling c0mpanion, from what he had himself seen (Exploration Scientifique de I' .Algerie, Hist. et Geogr. t. ii. p. 332). Of larger wild animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met with. "I.e lion du desert," says l\1. Carette, (Bxplor. de. 1' Alg. t. ii. pp. 126-129; t. vii. pp. 94 and 97,) "est un mythe popularise par les artistes et les poetes. Il n' existe que dans leur imagination. Cet animal ne sort pas de sa montagne ou il trouve de quoi se loger, s'abreuver et se nourrir. Quand on parle aux ha.bitans du desert de ces betes feroces que les Europeens leur donnent pour compagnons, ils repondent avec un imperturbable sang froid, il y a done chez vous des lions qui boivent de l'air et broutent des feuilles? Chez nous |