Sahara

Fauna.

The antelope and gazelle occur in the Sahara, and were formerly hunted by the lion, which is now nearly extinct in the desert. Jackal, fox, fennec, badger, jerboa, rat, isabelline hare and, near water, bats also occur. The hyena wanders near the desert border, and the mouflon is found here and there on the higher land. Ostriches survive in the Mauretanian Ergs, but must once have been abundant and widespread. Eagles are fairly nu merous, and there are quails, with some ducks, flamingoes and herons near the wadis, where there is water occasionally. Horned vipers, several large lizards, scorpions, tarantulas, beetles, myriads of locusts and flies and many ticks are other members of the fauna. A few crocodiles survive in some dwindling swamps of the west.

Peoples and Settlement.

It has been indicated above that what is now the desert of Sahara seems to have been open grass land or steppe land in the days of early man. Consequently, it is not surprising to find evidences of a more extensive human occupation of the region than its present climatic and physical conditions will allow.

Barth, in 185o, described drawings as representing a dense crowd of cattle all moving in one direction. Incised drawings are known in Tibesti, and in the region of North Tuareg (Adger), and north of this, through Algeria to Morocco from Constantine by Ain Sefra to Figig. The animals represented on these draw ings no longer inhabit these regions. Neolithic implements have been found at the base of the rocks. Rock drawings are rarer in the western Sahara ; some occur at Meherrah 6o km. W. of Menakeb.

Attempts have been made to trace in certain of the existing inhabitants the remnants of an early race of negro affinities, which inhabited the Sahara before the arrival of the Berbers and Arabs. Gautier thought that at a period as recent as the Roman conquest of North Africa the Sahara had still a Neolithic culture and people of negro affinities. Negro influence is undoubtedly seen in various parts of the Sahara, but it may date from a much more recent period than has been supposed. For example, the connection between many of the place-names in Fezzan and the language of Bornu is attributable to the northward extension of the influence of the Bornu-Kanem empire between the 1 ith and 14th centuries A.D. The allusions by classical writers to Ethiopians as inhabitants of the Sahara prove little, in view of the very vague and general meaning attached to the word. Caravans of negro slaves from time immemorial passed northwards along the main desert routes, and it is just in the oases on these routes that the dark element in the population is chiefly found. The

oases are naturally the chief centres of population in the Sahara. They occupy positions where the underground water makes its way to the surface or is readily reached by boring ; other centres of population are certain mountainous districts where the atmos pheric moisture is condensed, and a moderate rainfall results.

The northern oases, such as Dra'a and Tafilelt, are poor. In the east is the Zusfana group, near Tarhit. The Gurara oasis is probably an old lake floor watered by subterranean galleries made by man, and called goggaras, and is a rather rich settlement. Tuat is of the same type, but on a cliff top. Tinerkuk and Tar huzg are Erg oases. Tidikelt is the only artesian oasis. Ugarta, Zerhama and Bon Mahud are small "spring" oases. The Tafilelt people meet in the A/hider pass by the Daura, Bubut or Wahila, and move over the central plateau and pass Chech in the Tar hamant. The Dra'a meet at Tingut and go via Regbat and the edge of the Erg, and then across the central plateau to Tarhamant.

Another raiding group are the Seguiet el Hamra. These people of the northern Sahara are nomads. The various confederations of the Tuareg, in the central Sahara, are grouped around hilly dis tricts. The most important are the Awellimiden, on the left bank of the Middle Niger; and the Kel-Ui, grouped around the moun tainous districts of Air or Asben, with Agades as centre; the two northern confederations, those of the Ahaggar and Asjer, being less powerful. North-west of Timbuktu, in the district or "kingdom" of Biru, is the oasis and town of Walata, a Tuareg settlement. The Tuareg are mostly a nomadic people of pre Arab stock. All the men folk are veiled, and they have been known accordingly as the "People of the Veil." They were doubt less pushed into the fastnesses of the southern desert by Islamic invasions. Other mountainous districts in which a certain amount of rain falls regularly, and which contain a population above the average for the Sahara, are Tibesti and Borku, in the east cen tre, and Adrar in the west. Tibesti and Borku are peopled by Tibbus, once thought to be almost pure negroes. This has, how ever, been disproved. They are light or dark bronze in colour. Their language is related to that of the Kanuri in Bornu, but it appears that the language of the Tibbu is the older. The Tibbus are probably of Hamitic stock. The western Adrar is peopled mainly by Moors (Berbers).