The Desert World

[1] The “Mysteries of the Ocean,” rendered into English by the Translator of “The Bird” and of the present volume, is published, as a companion work, by Messrs. T. Nelson and Sons.

[2] The Jura chain is an outlier of the great Alpine system, and situated on the border of Switzerland; the Vosges separate the valley of the Rhine from that of the Moselle (greatest elevation, 469 feet); and the Cevennes that of the Loire from the basin of the Rhone (greatest elevation, 5794 feet).

[3] The forest covers an area of about sixty-four square miles. The château, originally founded by Robert the Pious in 975-990, was rebuilt in the twelfth century by Louis VII.

[4] Jules Janin, “La Bretagne” (ed. Paris, 1845), c. xvii.

[5] Deane, “Archæologia,” vol. xxv.

[6] See Mr. Jephson’s “Walking Tour in Brittany,” and Tom Taylor’s recent book of “Translations of Breton Songs and Ballads.”

[7] P. Fletcher, “The Purple Island,” canto i. 45.

[8] Tennyson, Poems: “Mariana.”

[9] Angus Reach, “Claret and Olives.”

[10] The fir plantations, which are so numerous in the Landes, were first formed in 1789, under the direction of the minister, M. Necker (father of Madame de Stael). In 1862, the department had a population of 300,859. Acreage, 2,434,752.

[11] Angus B. Reach, “Claret and Olives.”

[12] M. Perris, in “Mémoires de l’Académie de Lyon.”

[13] “Dunes,” from dun, a hill. These sand-mounds also extend along the coast of the Netherlands, where they serve to protect the low country from tidal inundation. “In some places,” says a traveller, “they look like a series of irregular hills; and when seen from the top of the steeples, they are so huge as to shut out the view of the sea. The traveller, in visiting them from the fertile plains, all at once ascends into a region of desert barrenness. He walks on and on for miles in a wilderness such as might be expected to be seen in Africa, and at last emerges on the sea-shore, where the mode of creation of this singular kind of territory is at once conspicuous.”—W. Chambers, “Tour in Holland.”

[14] Rev. S. Rowe, “Perambulation of the Ancient Forest of Dartmoor” (ed. by Dr. E. Moore; London, 1856).

[15] Mrs. Bray, “The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy.”

[16] Rev. C. Kingsley, in Good Words, vol. for 1867, pp. 302-310.

[17] Dyer, “Poetical Works,” The Fleece, book ii.

[18] Walter White, “Eastern England,” ii. 13, 14.

[19] Humboldt, “Ansichten der Natur,” vol. i., App.

[20] Humboldt, “Ansichten der Natur,” vol. i. (Notes).

[21] Homer, “Iliad,” book i.

[22] Madame Hommaire de Hell: “Voyage aux Steppes de la Mer Caspienne,” tome 1^er.

[23] The Onagra is identical with the Koulan (Equus hemionus) of the Persian. It is described in the Book of Job, ch. xxxix. 5-8.

[24] T. W. Atkinson, “Oriental and Western Siberia,” pp. 286, 287.

[25] Brande, “Dictionary of Art and Science,” art. Camel.

[26] Madame de Hell, “Voyage aux Steppes de la Mer Caspienne,” tome I^er.

[27] Class I., Mammalia: Order III., Carnaria; Order V., Rodentia; Order IX., Ruminantia.

[28] Also called the Musmon (Ovis Musmon).

[29] This rod, or whip, is furnished with a long cord terminating in a slip-knot, something like a lasso. With this instrument the Tartars seize and carry away the horses and wild asses, and, as we see in the Engraving, capture wolves alive, and satisfy their hatred against these unfortunate beasts, less ferocious, assuredly, than the Tartars themselves.

[30] Huc, “Souvenirs d’un Voyage dans la Tartarie, la Thibet, et la Chine,” tome 1^er.

[31] Bishop Mant, “British Months.”

[32] Atkinson, “Oriental and Western Siberia,” pp. 463-465.

[33] Humboldt, “Ansichten der Natur,” vol. i.

[34] Prof. Max Müller, “Lectures on the Science of Language,” 2nd Series, p. 309.

[35] The Spanish gipsies call themselves Calés (black). Many interesting details of this curious people are embodied in George Borrow’s “Zincali; or, An Account of the Gipsies in Spain.”

[36] All that is really known about them will be found in Professor Pott’s “Zigeunersprache” (Halle, 1845).

[37] Max Müller, “On the Origin of Language,” 2nd series, p. 317.

[38] T. W. Atkinson, “Oriental and Western Siberia,” pp. 284-286.

[39] Max Müller, “Origin of Language,” pp. 311, 312.

[40] Dr. Latham thus describes their physical characteristics:—“The face is broad and flat, because the cheek-bones stand out laterally, and the nasal bones are depressed. The cheek-bones stand out laterally; are not merely projecting, for this they might be without giving much breadth to the face, inasmuch as they might stand forward. The distance between the eyes is great, the eyes themselves being oblique, and their carunculæ concealed. The eyebrows form a low and imperfect arch, black and scanty. The iris is dark, the cornea yellow. The complexion is scanty, the stature low. The ears are large, standing out from the head; the lips thick and fleshy rather than thin; the teeth somewhat oblique in their insertion, the forehead low and flat, and the hair lank and thin.”—Descriptive Ethnology.

[41] Rev. H. B. Tristram, “The Great Sahara,” p. 360.

[42] Mrs. Somerville, “Physical Geography,” vol. i., p. 105.

[43] Moore, “Lalla Rookh”—Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.

[44] Lake Sir-i-Kol is 15,600 feet above the sea-level; that is, nearly as high as Mont Blanc. It is fourteen miles long and one mile broad.

[45] Dean Stanley, “Syria and Palestine,” pp. 290-294.

[46] Laorty-Hadji, “La Syrie, la Palestine, et la Judée.”

[47] Shelley, “Poetical Works”—Stanzas Written in Dejection, &c.

[48] A parasang varies in length; in some parts of Persia it measures thirty, in others fifty furlongs.

[49] Such quicksands are found at some parts of the British coast, and the reader will remember that in one of them occurs the catastrophe of Scott’s romance, “The Bride of Lammermoor.”

[50] Miss Martineau, “Eastern Life: Past and Present.”

[51] Coleridge, “Poetical Works”—Kubla Khan.

[52] Trémaux, “Egypte et Ethiopie,” 1^re partie, c. vii.

[53] M. Charles Martins, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara” (Paris, 1866), pp. 555, et seq.

[54] Martins “Du Spitzberg au Sahara,” p. 556.

[55] Tristram, “The Great Sahara,” p. 354.

[56] Martins. “Du Spitzberg au Sahara,” in loc.

[57] Fromentin. “Une Eté dans le Sahara.”

[58] Moore’s “Poetical Works”—Veiled Prophet of Khorassan

[59] Martins, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara,” p. 562.

[60] Dean Stanley, “Sinai and Palestine,” pp. 68, 69.

[61] Philip Smith, “History of the World,” i. 286.

[62] T. W. Atkinson, “Travels on the Russo-Chinese Frontiers.”

[63] Moore, “Lalla Rookh”—The Fire-Worshippers.

[64] Homer, “Odyssey,” book xi., Pope’s Translation.

[65] M. le Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, “Le Désert et le Soudan” (Paris, 1853).

[66] Dante, “L’Inferno,” c. xiv., Longfellow’s Translation.

[67] Order, Cruciferæ.

[68] Sub-order, Tubulifloræ.

[69] Martins, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara,” pp. 565, et seq.

[70] Moore, “Lalla Rookh”—The Fire-Worshippers.

[71] Martins, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara,” p. 567.

[72] Tristram, “The Great Sahara,” pp. 95-98.

[73] Général Daumas, “Le Grand Desert,” pp. 160-162.

[74] Carrette, “Exploration de l’Algérie,” tome ii.

[75] This substance, according to other authorities, was more probably the saccharine exudation, Mount Sinai manna, which forms on the branches of the tamarix mannifera, and thence falls to the ground.

[76] Wordsworth, “Poetical Works”—Rob Roy’s Grave, vol. iii., p. 21.

[77] Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” v., p. 451.

[78] Tremblet, “Les Français dans le Desert” (Paris, 1863).

[79] Goethe’s “Faust,” translated by Theodore Martin, p. 202.

[80] Dr. Livingstone, “Missionary Researches in South Africa.”

[81] Thomas Pringle, “South African Sketches.”

[82] Livingstone, “Missionary Travels and Researches.”

[83] Keat’s “Poetical Works,” sonnet ix.

[84] Livingstone, “Missionary Travels and Researches.”

[85] Baker, “Basin of the Nile and Equatorial Africa,” ii. 101-103.

[86] Morin, “Sources du Nil,” in Annuaire Scientifique for 1864.

[87] Dr. Barth, “Travels and Discoveries in Central Africa” (London, 1857-58).

[88] Wordsworth, “Poetical Works;” sonnet xvi., vol. iii., p. 61.

[89] Taylor, “Isaac Comnenus,” Poetical Works, ii. 216.

[90] Mrs. Somerville, “Physical Geography,” i. 259, et seq.

[91] W. C. Bryant, “Poetical Works.”

[92] Mrs. Somerville, “Physical Geography,” i. 79.

[93] These inundations are nowhere more extensive than in the network of rivers formed by the Apure, the Arachuna, the Pajara, the Arauca, and the Cabuliare. Large vessels sail across the country over the Steppe for forty or fifty miles.

[94] Humboldt, “Ansichten der Natur,” i., Steppes and Deserts.

[95] Dr. I. Von Tschudi, “Travels in Peru” (London, 1847), pp. 305, 306.

[96] Polylepis racemosa.

[97] Krameria triandria.

[98] Journal of W. J. Wills, in locis.

[99] Order, Euphorbiaceæ.

[100] Order, Tiliaceæ.

[101] Order. Pandanaceæ.

[102] Order, Musaceæ.

[103] Order, Anacardiaceæ.

[104] Mansfield Parkyns, “Life in Abyssinia,” i. 226, 227.

[105] Adansonia digitata, a species of Baobab (Order, Stercubaceæ).

[106] Order, Celastraceæ.

[107] Order, Rosaceæ.

[108] Order, Gnetaceæ.

[109] Brande, “Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art,” iii. 1018, 1019.

[110] Order, Anacardiaceæ.

[111] Order, Ranunculaceæ; Sub-order, Actaea.

[112] Order, Onagraceæ, or Evening Primrose Tribe.

[113] Order, Zygophyllaceæ.

[114] Humboldt, “Ansichten der Natur”—Steppes and Deserts, note 17.

[115] Order, Nymphaceæ.

[116] The Pampas grass is very hardy. Its stems are from ten to fourteen feet high, its leaves six or eight feet long, and its panicles of flowers silvery white, and from eighteen inches to two feet in length. Another Brazilian species of the same genus, Gynerium saccharoides, yields a considerable quantity of sugar.

[117] Sydney Smith, in Edinburgh Review, for 1819.

[118] Order, Amentaceæ.

[119] Order, Liliaceæ.

[120] Order, Malpighiaceæ.

[121] Order, Myrtaceæ.

[122] The same name, “Traveller’s Tree,” is applied to the Urania speciosa.

[123] Pachydermata, from παχὑς, thick, and δἑρμα, skin; an order of quadrupeds distinguished by the thickness of their hides.

[124] Sir S. Baker, “The Albert N’yanza,” &c., i. 65-67.

[125] Livingstone, “Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.”

[126] Stocqueler, “Handbook to India.”

[127] Du Chaillu, “Travels in Equatorial Africa.”

[128] Dr. Livingstone, “Missionary Travels and Researches.”

[129] F. Buckland, “Curiosities of Natural History.”

[130] As in Jer. viii. 7; and Psalm lviii. 4, 5.

[131] Wallace, “Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.”

[132] Dr. Von Tschudi, “Travels in Peru” (London, 1847).

[133] It was introduced into England by the Earl of Derby in 1836. An alpaca factory, covering eleven acres, was erected at Saltaire, near Shipley, Yorkshire, by Mr. Titus Salt, in 1852, and is now the largest establishment of its kind in the world.

[134] Dr. Von Tschudi, “Travels in Peru.”

[135] Dr. Darwin, “Journal of a Naturalist” (Voyage of the Beagle, 3rd vol.)

[136] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the River Amazons.”

[137] Rev. J. G. Wood, “Homes Without Hands.”

[138] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the Amazons,” pp. 112, 113.

[139] Hon. C. A. Murray, “Travels in North America.”

[140] A. Wilson, “American Ornithology.”

[141] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the Amazons.”

[142] Gould, “Quadrupeds of Australia,” in loc.

[143] M. P. Gervais, “Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères,” sub nom. Thylacynus.

[144] Sir. G. Grey, “Expeditions of Discovery in North-Western and Western Australia” (1840).

[145] Ruskin, “Modern Painters,” vol. v., pt. vi., c. i., § 3, 4.

[146] Longfellow, “Poetical Works”—Evangeline.

[147] Milton and Cheadle, “North-West Passage by Land,” chap. xv.

[148] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the River Amazons.”

[149] Order, Lycopodiaceæ; club-mosses.

[150] Lecythis Ollaria (order, Lecythidaceæ).

[151] Bertholletia Excelsa (Lecythidaceæ).

[152] Order, Bignoniaceæ.

[153] Order, Leguminosæ; tribe, Mimosæ.

[154] Order, Sterculiaceæ.

[155] Order, Urticaceæ.

[156] Iriartea Ventricosa.

[157] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the Amazons,” pp. 33, 35.

[158] Matthew Arnold, New Poems: “Empedocles on Etna,” p. 16.

[159] F. de Lanoye, “L’Inde Contemporaine,” c. 1^er.

[160] Order, Musaceæ.

[161] Order, Moraceæ.

[162] Southey, “Poetical Works”—The Curse of Kehama.

[163] Craufurd, “The Eastern Archipelago.”

[164] Brande, “Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art,” iii. 610.

[165] From the Greek ἑπι, upon, and φὑτον, a plant.

[166] Order, Leguminosæ.

[167] Rev. W. Ellis, “Three Visits to Madagascar.”

[168] Order, Apocynaceæ.

[169] The genus Vibris is the type of a tribe of animalcules commonly known as microscopic eels, remarkable for their extraordinary minuteness. One species is parasitic upon wheat, and when full grown attains a quarter of an inch in length; but the young are so microscopically small that 30,000 might be contained in a single grain of wheat.

[170] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the Amazons,” pp. 37-39.

[171] Dr. Buckland. Bridgewater Treatise, “On Geology and Palæontology,” &c.

[172] Mansfield Parkyns, “Life in Abyssinia.” See some interesting details in Major Harris’s “Sport in the Western Highlands of Ethiopia.”

[173] H. W. Bates, “The Naturalist on the Amazons,” p. 175.

[174] According to Humboldt, this is an exaggeration: the Howlers assemble in large numbers, morning and evening, and join in a chorus of discords, but do not obey a president or leader.

[175] In the foregoing paragraphs I have allowed the French author, M. Mangin, to express his opinions in his own language. I must guard myself, however, from being supposed to endorse them as a whole. Between the most intelligent Simiæ and Man a wide gulf exists, which I see no reason for supposing the Ape will ever cross. And I believe that his physical likeness to Man may be satisfactorily referred to that general progressiveness in creation which we may trace from the lowest to the highest types.

[176] Du Chaillu, “Travels and Adventures in Equatorial Africa” (London, 1863).

[177] Du Chaillu, “Travels and Adventures in Equatorial Africa.”

[178] T. Noon Talfourd, “Dramatic Works.”

[179] Arthur Helps, “Spanish Conquest in America.”

[180] Pope, “Poetical Works”—Essay on Man.

[181] Capt. R. F. Burton, “Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa.”

[182] R. W. Emerson. “Essays” (Collected Works, Bell & Daldy, 2 vols.)

[183] This was written in September 1867.

[184] Alfred Maury, “La Terre et l’Homme,” ch. vii.

[185] For information, as entertaining as it is valuable, respecting the history, people, and products of Madagascar, see the Rev. William Ellis’s “Three Visits to Madagascar,” and M. Octave Sachot’s “Madagascar et les Madécasses” (Paris, 1864).

[186] In the language of the Sandwich Islanders. Kanak or Kanaque signifies “a man.”

[187] Compare the narratives of the early voyagers, especially those of De Bougainville, Cook, and Wallis.

[188] Hacienda, a farm; haciendero, a farm-proprietor.

[189] Admiral Wilkes, “Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition.”

[190] The isothermal line of 0°, which in Europe scarcely touches the North Cape of Lapland (about 72°), descends in America fully 20 degrees lower, even to the south of James Bay.

[191] Hervé and Lanoye, “Voyages dans les Glaces du Pôle Arctique,” chap. i. (Paris, 1854).

[192] Sir James C. Ross “Voyages of Discovery and Research” (London, 1847).

[193] Sir J. Richardson, “Fauna Boreali Americana.”

[194] Professor Forbes, “Norway and its Glaciers” (Edinburgh, 1853).

[195] 51° 30´ north latitude, the parallel of London.

[196] Compare Malte Brun, ed. by Lavallée, “Géographie Universelle;” Mrs. Somerville, “Physical Geography;” and Sir J. Herschel, “Physical Geography” (Encycl. Britt., 9th edit.)

[197] Coleridge, Hymn in the Valley of Chamouni. For a glowing account of these phenomena, see Professor Tyndall’s “Glaciers of the Alps.”

[198] Admiral Smyth, “The Mediterranean.”

[199] Matthew Arnold, “New Poems” (1867)—Empedocles on Etna.

[200] Dr. J. Hooker, “Himalayan Journals.”

[201] Captain Strachey, “Journal of Royal Geographical Society” (vol. xxi.)

[202] Spencer St. John, “Life in the Forests of the Far East” (London, 1863).

[203] Longfellow, “Poetical Works.”

[204] Charles Martins, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara.”