United States or Liechtenstein ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


Several of the slaves ran out amongst the tholh trees, and began to dance and kick up their heels as if possessed. It might remind them of the clear moonlit banks and woods of Niger. Haj Ibrahim at last got out his umbrella and put it up, "What's that for?" I asked. You must put up your broken umbrella."

The neighbouring country is flat and sandy, stretching in plains over the alluvial deposits of the Niger. There are no fruit-trees or gardens, beyond the growing of a few melons and vegetables; but trees abound on the vast plains of Timbuctoo, and there is a great number of the Tholh, or gum-bearing acacia.

But tholh here seems to refer to a very tall and thorny tree, which bears an abundance of beautiful flowers of an agreeable odour, one of the many species of acacia, and not the ordinary gum-arabic tree. Near sun-set we left the plain, and I took an everlasting farewell of the Temple of Genii.

Habits of She-Camels when having Foals. Our Mahrys. Intelligence of my Nagah. Geology of Route. Arrive at the Boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan. The Moon-Stroke. Sudden Tempest. Theological Controversy of The Shereef. Wars and Razzias between the Tibboos and Touaricks. Forests of Tholh Trees. The Shereef's opinion of the Touaricks. Dine with The Shereef. Saharan Travellers badly clothed and fed.

The tholh-trees of the dry thirsty African plain are however but dwarfs compared with the giant trees of the American forest, watered by ocean rivers. The tholh would seem to live without moisture: it is fed by no annual or periodic rain, no springs.

Coasting the Range of Wareerat or Taseely. Soudan Species of Sheep. Soudan Parrot. The Lethel Tree. The Tholh, or Gum-Arabic Tree. Falling of Rain in The Desert. Oasis of Serdalas. My Companions of Travel. Weather Hot and Sultry. The Slaves bear up well. The Ship of The Desert. Extremes of Cold and Heat. Mausoleum of Sidi Bou Salah. Serdalas, a neglected Oasis. The Sybil of The Sahara.

Some of these trees are very large, having very thick trunks and boughs, perhaps forty feet high, and ten feet round the thickest trunks, which wood, when palm-wood is scarce, is used instead for building. On the plain, however, the Tholh began to appear. This tree is found, as noticed before, in the most desolate places of The Desolate Sahara.

The boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan are determined by two conspicuous objects, first, by a chain of mountains running north-east and south-west, joining the oases of Fezzan on the north, and extending to the Tibboo towns on the south, the eastern side of all which chain is claimed by the masters of Fezzan, the western by the Touaricks of Ghat; and secondly the forests of tholh trees, which are now appearing in our north, affording abundant wood to the people of the caravan, and browsing for the camels.

I shall only give one instance of the positive and material benefit which the people of Fezzan have derived from the establishment of the British Consul at Mourzuk. Mr. Gagliuffi induced the people to cultivate the tholh for collecting gums. Fifty cantars were collected the first year, and last year some two hundred.

Near the great spring is a large tree, with prickly thorny leaves, not unlike the tholh. It is called Ahatas, ‮اهتس‬, and was brought from Soudan, where its species grows to an enormous magnitude. Its wood makes excellent bowls, spoons, and several useful domestic utensils.