Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/563

 AIR, AND COUNTRY OF THE AWELLIMIDEN BEBBEBa 4tfa are also some small hoMinji^s, which are highly cultivated, and aji thriftily adinini*- tered as the arable lands in the Yang-tne-Kiang valley. In the northern part of the Insalah oasis is situated the village of Hrliana or Miliann, to which M. Soleillot i)enetrate<l in the year 1873. But the chief centra of population, Ksar-el-Arub, or Ksor-el-Arb, lies further south. Hero resides the sheikh, a very potent personage, thanks to his great wealth, to the heroic traditions of the Bujuda family, of which he is the representative, to the patronage he is able to exercise over the neighbouring Tuareg tribes, and to the protection he affords to passing caravans. Air, asd Cointry of the Awei.umidfx Berhers. In the centre of the region stretching from the Tibesti highlands westwards to the great bend of the Niger, rise the uplands of Air (in Arabic Ahir*), surrounded on all sides by sandy wastes and rocky plateaux, and forming a distinct orographic system, with its main axis disposed in the direction from north to south. This rugged region, the Asben or Absen of the Negroes and undoubtedly the Agesimba of Ptolemy, has hitherto been visited only by one Eurojx'an expetlition, that conducted by Richardson, Burth, and Overweg in the year iMoO. These explorers, advancing southwards from llbat, had crossed the central crest of the Sahara by the jagged Azjar plateau and the gorge of Egueri. Then leaving the region of sandstone formations, they entered that of the granites, taking a south-westorly and southern direction in order to reach the wells of Asiu, one of the most impor- tant watering-places in the desert. Here converge all the main routes from (ihadaraes, Tibesti, Twat, and Agades. On the level plain are sunk four wells, yielding an abundant supply of water, but ferruginous and of a disugrtruble flavour. Two of these wells belong to the Azjar Tuaregs, while the two others are regarded as the property of the natives of Air. According to an intertribal convention, which, however, is no longer observed, the respective owners of the waters are bound to refrain from all acts of hostility beyond the limits of their own territories. It was south of the line of demarcation, consequently in the Air domain, that Barth and his fellow-travellers, although under the protection of Mohammedan escorts, were attacked and plundered by the Azjars, in violation of the tenns of this agreement. The Air highlands cover a considerable extent of ground. From the Tidik Valley, opening to the north-west of the northeni group of hills, like a moat encir- cling a citadel, as far as the Baghsen mquntains, southern limit of the whole region, the distance in a stmight line is about I'iO miles. From east to west the breadth varies from 40 to (U) miles, while the superficial area of the whole system may be estimated at G,000 sqtiaie miles. Granite api)ears to be the prevailing formation, although Barth and his companions also noticed some sandstones, and in these highlands, as well as in those of Tibesti, some basalt nrcks also occur. Ili:iing in the midst of the Saharian plains, which here lie at a mean elevation of from 1,600 to 2,000 feet al>ove sea-level, the heighte of Air exceed, in some of • Ahir, incorrectly but deaitfuedly for the reMon giTon by Barth, i. p. 336.— Kd.