American Geographical Society

Impressions of the SaharaSahara by Angus BuchananGeographical Review, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1928), p. 516Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/208035 .

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THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

that will render them intelligible to the Occidental mind. It is especially in this skill- ful use of geography as an aid to the reconstruction of history that the author shows his characteristic originality. Neither a classicist nor an Arabic scholar, Professor Gautier frankly admits that his undertaking is "tr6s particuliere, dangereuse, en dehors des methodes usuelles de l'erudition." This, however, makes the volume all the more stimulating.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAHARA

ANGUS BUCHANAN. Sahara. xv and 301 pp.; map, ills., index. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1926. 9 x 6 inches.

The present book, although it centers around Captain Buchanan's great journey across the Sahara from south to north in I922-1923, is not a narrative of experiences day by day but a group of short essays, stories, and anecdotes interpretative of the great desert and of the life of the people that dwell within it. The keynote is the decay of the Sahara: rocks are crumbling into sand, oases reverting to the wilder- ness, people either dying out or losing their morale.

Captain Buchanan points out relations between the inhabitants and the land in which they dwell. The Tuaregs of the isolated mountains of Air far to the south are a wild and somewhat timid folk, whereas those of the Ergs, or open tracts of sand dune country, are daring raiders. Indeed, the northern Tuaregs as a whole are bolder than their southern brothers. "In the bazaars of In-Salah, Ouargla and Biskra they have learned of the ways of a bold living world." The cleavage between oasis dweller and desert rover is as marked in the Sahara as in Arabia and central Asia (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 17, 1927, pp. 514-515). The nomadic or semi-nomadic Tuaregs are the dominant folk, the owners and masters of the oases with their gardens and sedentary tillers of the soil. The hard work in the oases is done, for the most part, by negro slaves brought from the south. The truly nomadic Tuaregs occupy widely scattered encampments, in this respect differing from the Bedouins of Arabia who migrate in tribal groups. Buchanan points out that a half dozen huts may be clus- tered together "where the head of a family is located, then a few other families perhaps miles apart. It is the economic necessity to be within reach of grazing for their live stock which causes this isolated method of camping. Sometimes food is so very scarce that a single family is the sole occupant of a wide area."

Various incidents and aspects of the desert are described: for instance, the sand storms, the sudden torrential downpours of rain that come at rare intervals, a re- markable caravan of no less than 7000 camels that every year crosses a stretch of three hundred miles of sand eastward from Air to obtain salt for distribution among the people of the Sudan, an extraordinary town (Fachi) built almost entirely of blocks of rock salt. Buchanan is extremely successful in conveying to the reader the emotional effect which the desert exerts upon the traveler's mind. On the whole he knows how to write so well and with such genuine feeling that we may look with indulgence upon a pardonable overemphasis of the "mysteriousness," the "sadness," and the "mystic" qualities of the Sahara.

THE FRENCH COLONY OF THE NIGER

MAURICE ABADIE. La Colonie du Niger. 466 pp.; maps, ills., bibliogr., index. Societe d'Editions Geographique, Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris, 1927. 10IO x 8 inches.

The Niger Colony, located between latitudes I2? and 24? N., provides the student with an interesting cross section of the Sudan and the Sahara in one of their least- known parts.

This recent volume is a scholarly piece of work; lucid, simply written, concise, yet

that will render them intelligible to the Occidental mind. It is especially in this skill- ful use of geography as an aid to the reconstruction of history that the author shows his characteristic originality. Neither a classicist nor an Arabic scholar, Professor Gautier frankly admits that his undertaking is "tr6s particuliere, dangereuse, en dehors des methodes usuelles de l'erudition." This, however, makes the volume all the more stimulating.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAHARA

ANGUS BUCHANAN. Sahara. xv and 301 pp.; map, ills., index. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1926. 9 x 6 inches.

The present book, although it centers around Captain Buchanan's great journey across the Sahara from south to north in I922-1923, is not a narrative of experiences day by day but a group of short essays, stories, and anecdotes interpretative of the great desert and of the life of the people that dwell within it. The keynote is the decay of the Sahara: rocks are crumbling into sand, oases reverting to the wilder- ness, people either dying out or losing their morale.

Captain Buchanan points out relations between the inhabitants and the land in which they dwell. The Tuaregs of the isolated mountains of Air far to the south are a wild and somewhat timid folk, whereas those of the Ergs, or open tracts of sand dune country, are daring raiders. Indeed, the northern Tuaregs as a whole are bolder than their southern brothers. "In the bazaars of In-Salah, Ouargla and Biskra they have learned of the ways of a bold living world." The cleavage between oasis dweller and desert rover is as marked in the Sahara as in Arabia and central Asia (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 17, 1927, pp. 514-515). The nomadic or semi-nomadic Tuaregs are the dominant folk, the owners and masters of the oases with their gardens and sedentary tillers of the soil. The hard work in the oases is done, for the most part, by negro slaves brought from the south. The truly nomadic Tuaregs occupy widely scattered encampments, in this respect differing from the Bedouins of Arabia who migrate in tribal groups. Buchanan points out that a half dozen huts may be clus- tered together "where the head of a family is located, then a few other families perhaps miles apart. It is the economic necessity to be within reach of grazing for their live stock which causes this isolated method of camping. Sometimes food is so very scarce that a single family is the sole occupant of a wide area."

Various incidents and aspects of the desert are described: for instance, the sand storms, the sudden torrential downpours of rain that come at rare intervals, a re- markable caravan of no less than 7000 camels that every year crosses a stretch of three hundred miles of sand eastward from Air to obtain salt for distribution among the people of the Sudan, an extraordinary town (Fachi) built almost entirely of blocks of rock salt. Buchanan is extremely successful in conveying to the reader the emotional effect which the desert exerts upon the traveler's mind. On the whole he knows how to write so well and with such genuine feeling that we may look with indulgence upon a pardonable overemphasis of the "mysteriousness," the "sadness," and the "mystic" qualities of the Sahara.

THE FRENCH COLONY OF THE NIGER

MAURICE ABADIE. La Colonie du Niger. 466 pp.; maps, ills., bibliogr., index. Societe d'Editions Geographique, Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris, 1927. 10IO x 8 inches.

The Niger Colony, located between latitudes I2? and 24? N., provides the student with an interesting cross section of the Sudan and the Sahara in one of their least- known parts.

This recent volume is a scholarly piece of work; lucid, simply written, concise, yet

that will render them intelligible to the Occidental mind. It is especially in this skill- ful use of geography as an aid to the reconstruction of history that the author shows his characteristic originality. Neither a classicist nor an Arabic scholar, Professor Gautier frankly admits that his undertaking is "tr6s particuliere, dangereuse, en dehors des methodes usuelles de l'erudition." This, however, makes the volume all the more stimulating.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAHARA

ANGUS BUCHANAN. Sahara. xv and 301 pp.; map, ills., index. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1926. 9 x 6 inches.

The present book, although it centers around Captain Buchanan's great journey across the Sahara from south to north in I922-1923, is not a narrative of experiences day by day but a group of short essays, stories, and anecdotes interpretative of the great desert and of the life of the people that dwell within it. The keynote is the decay of the Sahara: rocks are crumbling into sand, oases reverting to the wilder- ness, people either dying out or losing their morale.

Captain Buchanan points out relations between the inhabitants and the land in which they dwell. The Tuaregs of the isolated mountains of Air far to the south are a wild and somewhat timid folk, whereas those of the Ergs, or open tracts of sand dune country, are daring raiders. Indeed, the northern Tuaregs as a whole are bolder than their southern brothers. "In the bazaars of In-Salah, Ouargla and Biskra they have learned of the ways of a bold living world." The cleavage between oasis dweller and desert rover is as marked in the Sahara as in Arabia and central Asia (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 17, 1927, pp. 514-515). The nomadic or semi-nomadic Tuaregs are the dominant folk, the owners and masters of the oases with their gardens and sedentary tillers of the soil. The hard work in the oases is done, for the most part, by negro slaves brought from the south. The truly nomadic Tuaregs occupy widely scattered encampments, in this respect differing from the Bedouins of Arabia who migrate in tribal groups. Buchanan points out that a half dozen huts may be clus- tered together "where the head of a family is located, then a few other families perhaps miles apart. It is the economic necessity to be within reach of grazing for their live stock which causes this isolated method of camping. Sometimes food is so very scarce that a single family is the sole occupant of a wide area."

Various incidents and aspects of the desert are described: for instance, the sand storms, the sudden torrential downpours of rain that come at rare intervals, a re- markable caravan of no less than 7000 camels that every year crosses a stretch of three hundred miles of sand eastward from Air to obtain salt for distribution among the people of the Sudan, an extraordinary town (Fachi) built almost entirely of blocks of rock salt. Buchanan is extremely successful in conveying to the reader the emotional effect which the desert exerts upon the traveler's mind. On the whole he knows how to write so well and with such genuine feeling that we may look with indulgence upon a pardonable overemphasis of the "mysteriousness," the "sadness," and the "mystic" qualities of the Sahara.

THE FRENCH COLONY OF THE NIGER

MAURICE ABADIE. La Colonie du Niger. 466 pp.; maps, ills., bibliogr., index. Societe d'Editions Geographique, Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris, 1927. 10IO x 8 inches.

The Niger Colony, located between latitudes I2? and 24? N., provides the student with an interesting cross section of the Sudan and the Sahara in one of their least- known parts.

This recent volume is a scholarly piece of work; lucid, simply written, concise, yet

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