. Explorations and adventures in the wilds of Africa; . asked. Much worse,replied El Baggar; the others are rather tough, but this is an easy-godand will suit the lady well. An Extraordinary Freak of Nature. It was impossible to hire a good dromedary; an Arab prizes hisriding animal too much, and invariably refuses to let it to a stranger, butgenerally imposes upon him by substituting some lightly-built camel,hat he thinks will pass muster; I accordingly chose for my wife a steady-going animal from among the baggage-camels, trusting to be able toobtain a better one from the great sheikh, Abou
. Explorations and adventures in the wilds of Africa; . asked. Much worse,replied El Baggar; the others are rather tough, but this is an easy-godand will suit the lady well. An Extraordinary Freak of Nature. It was impossible to hire a good dromedary; an Arab prizes hisriding animal too much, and invariably refuses to let it to a stranger, butgenerally imposes upon him by substituting some lightly-built camel,hat he thinks will pass muster; I accordingly chose for my wife a steady-going animal from among the baggage-camels, trusting to be able toobtain a better one from the great sheikh, Abou Sinn, who was encampedupon the road we were about to take along the valley of the Atbara. Upon arriving at the highest point of the valley, we found ourselvesupon the vast table-land that stretches from the Atbara to the Nile. Atthis season the entire surface had a faint tint of green, as the young shootsof grass had replied to the late showers of rain; so perfect a level wasthis great tract of fertile country, that within a mile of the valley of the. wild Arabs swift ride. 41 42 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS. Atbara there was neither furrow nor water-course, but the escape of th$rainfall was by simple soakage. As usual, the land was dotted withmimosas, all of which were now bursting into leaf. The thorns of the different varieties of these trees are an extraordinaryfreak of Nature, as she appears to have exhausted all her art in producingan apparently useless arrangement of defence. The mimosas that aremost common in the Souda provinces are mere bushes, seldom exceedingsixteen feet in height; these spread out toward the top like mushroom^but the branches commence within two feet of the ground; they arearmed with thorns in the shape of fish-hooks, which they resemble insharpness and strength. A thick jungle composed of such bushes is per-fectly impenetrable to any animals but elephants, rhinoceroses and buf-faloes, and should the clothes of a man become entangled in such thorns,either
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