Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/291

Rh of the largest size found in these latitudes. Herodotus called this species "earth crocodiles." Those that I ran across were over three feet in length, with long necks and with the strong legs and feet that give to this type a speed of locomotion above the average in the species. Scared by the roar of the car, they made off very quickly, slashing about with their strong tails, which they use in attack or defense with the power and precision of a whip.

About six miles beyond Asni we met a group of mountaineers trekking toward Marrakesh with panniers of charcoal laden on donkeys.

"Do you realize," said the Captain, "that these men will receive about five francs apiece for their charcoal? And they trudge for five or six days to make the journey of a hundred miles there and back, just for five francs. It is evidently the hereditary nomad blood, calling for a change of scene, that makes the native so fond of such trips."

In the bed of a river we were crossing I found some bits of rock-crystal that made me curious and sent me prospecting up the stream, which had its source above among the broken and jagged rocks that were picturesquely colored in yellows and reds. As I searched, I found in the stream-bed a large number of beautiful pieces of onyx, agate, quartz and bits of green copper ore. If a Siberian or Canadian gold prospector found himself in this region, he would certainly investigate carefully the bed of this stream, into which ran numerous little affluents that carried down broken bits of quartz from the colored rocks, which, as far as I could judge from the few samples I found, were conglomerates.