Former Fertility of the Kalahari Desert

Abstract

PROF. J. W. GREGORY, in his article on my recent Kalahari pamphlet in NATURE of April 12, p. 539, objected to my citing the Sylphium of Cyrenaica as evidence of the former fertility of the desert. I also gave the wine palm, Raphia monbuttorum, as evidence; for, whereas it formerly lived in the Egyptian oases, it is now confined to the more humid regions further south. Hassanein Bey has recently given evidence to the same effect in the oases of Kufra and Ouenat. In the latter place he describes rock drawings of ostriches, giraffes, and other animals that require grassland, and could not possibly live in the desert as it is to-day. The fact that there are no camels shown indicates that the pictures were made before A.D. 640, when the Arabs arrived in Africa with their camels. Nowadays, life in Ouenat would be impossible without these animals.