The biggest desert in the world is in Africa, and is called the Sahara.
It is almost as large as the Atlantic Ocean, but instead of water it is
all sands and rocks. Like the ocean, it is visited with storms;
dreadful gales, when the wind scoops up thousands of tons of sand and
drives them forward, burying and crushing all they meet. And it has
islands, too--small green patches, where springs bubble through the
ground, and ferns and acacias and palm-trees grow. When a traveler sees
one of these fertile spots afar off, he feels as a tempest-tossed
sailor does at sight of land. It is delightful to quit the hot, baking
sun, sit in shadow under the trees, and rest the eyes, long wearied
with dazzling sands, on the sweet green and the clear spring. Oases,
these islands are called. Long distances divide them. It is often a
race for life to get across from one to the other. Sometimes people do
not get across! In 1805, a caravan of 2,000 persons died miserably of
heat and thirst in the great desert, and the sand covered them up. Do
you wonder at my saying that the desert eats men?
Now, you will be puzzled to guess what sort of ship it is which swims
this dry ocean.
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