Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/44





THE KUFRA OASES.

HE archipelago of green oases forming the Kufra group, lost amid the sands and rocks of the Libyan desert, is one of the least accessible regions in the whole of Africa. Hence it remained unknown to modern explorers till the close of the last century; nor is it at all certain that it formed a part of the world known to the ancients, although undoubtedly inhabited by relatively civilised communities. Hornemann was the first to hear of these oases during his visit to Aujila. But neither Hamilton nor Beurmann, who attempted to penetrate to the mysterious land, were able to procure guides willing to accompany them; and when in 1874 Rohlfs, Zittel, and Jordan started from the Dakhal oasis on the direct route for Kufra, with the compass as their only guide, they were compelled to abandon the project after a six day's march. Although followed by a whole convoy of camels laden with iron water-tanks, they were obliged to turn northwards in the direction of Siwah. Here they had the advantage of a relatively easy route between parallel chains of sand-hills; whereas in the direction of Kufra, for a distance of 240 miles, they would have had successively to cross a series of shifting dunes ranging in altitude from 350 to 500 feet.

In 1879 Rohlfs, penetrating from the Aujila oasis southwards, at last succeeded in reaching Kufra, where, however, he ran a great risk of being massacred, with all his followers. From the last encampment in the Jalo oasis at the Battifal wells to the first springs in the Kufra district, the whole distance is no less than 210 miles. But the track does not follow a straight line, and, especially in the night, caravans often retrace their steps. The route taken by Rohlfs is estimated at 240 miles, a space of absolutely desert land, covered by an uninterrupted march of 106 hours. The surface of the plateau comprised between the two groups of oases presents nothing but a narrow zone of dunes at its southern extremity, while towards the centre it is intersected by a bahr belâ-mâ, a "waterless river," or depression destitute of vegetation, which was so little noticed by Rohlfs that he mentions it only on the report of the natives.

Nearly the whole space traversed by him consists of serirs, stony plateaux perfectly uniform in appearance, and strewn with a fine grit which looked almost