Life In The Sahara (1953)

[Music] this is the desert a vast dry sea of barren Plains sand and rugged mountains a region which seldom knows rain and where few men or plants can live all the Contin have deserts but the greatest of all is found in Africa the Sahara Desert a thinly settled Wasteland it is larger than the United States of America yet in this vast Sahara only about 3 million people live fewer than in some large cities of Europe or the Americans over most of the Sahara so little rain falls that only the hardiest of plants can survive and in its heart several years may pass between short cloud burst the Sahara has mountain ranges where Peaks rise to a height of nearly 11,000 ft and salty Plains where distant layers of heated air reflect the sky in a [Music] mirage Barren Sands May reach for hundreds of miles with Dunes 500 ft High a rolling sea of sand where Desert Winds blow the constantly shifting waves where nothing green can grow and where neither man nor animal can live for long in modern times man has built Railways along the edge of the Sahara but the trains are small and these Rail lines reach into the desert only a few hundred miles beyond the rails are roads some of which go completely across the Sahara but such roads are poor and in some places piles of rock are needed to help Mark the route at emergency stations water and gasoline are available for passing cars and cargo trucks carrying supplies to the few lonely towns of the desert airplanes too are helping conquer the Sahara carrying passengers and cargos swiftly over dunes and mountains covering in hours a distance that would take many days by train or Auto and many months on foot or camel but the one local Airline reaches only a few of the main Desert Cities and even they are very small merely a few hundred houses where four or 5,000 persons may live mainly Arabs berbers and Negroes of the muhammadan faith at such cities there's usually a stream supplying farms and a Palm Grove but still in this Barren land wood is precious and most houses are made of Earth the clay near a water hole is mixed with sand and patted into cakes in drying these cakes Harden into bricks which can be built into walls and smoothed over with plaster thick Earth walls whitened to reflect the sun hold out the Heat and make such desert dwellings comfortable overhanging rooms often change a street into a tunnel but what is lost in light and air is gained and Escape From the Sun within such cities tiny donkeys easily carry loads that would seem as heavy as the donkey itself in the Market Square these men are making leather slippers nearby desert farm products are exchanged for goods from other areas dates and Grains from local farms are traded for spices from central Africa sheep and goats from northern mountains or metal wear and clothing from Europe such goods are brought by the trains trucks and planes without them the Desert Cities would have a much more primitive life and far less security but away from these cities are millions of square miles of desert in which live live many thousands of persons to reach such remote areas man must use the only Beast of Burden which can live well in the desert the camel a camel's wide flat feet do not sink into desert sand it can eat hay or straw but can live equally well on desert grasses and its nostrils can be closed against blowing Sands though ugly ill-tempered and hard to train a camel is the most valuable animal in the desert it can travel five or 6 days without water under conditions which would soon kill a horse or an ax a camel can cover 50 m a day with a rider or a load of 500 lb camel Caravans are still the only means of carrying food and supplies to distant tribes in the remote wastes of sand and mountains at the foot of mountain slopes where occasional rains collect there are sometimes grassy Plains where goats or sheep can graze but these thin grasses are soon eaten and the flock must move on perhaps many miles to find another pasture those who tend such wandering flocks are called Nomads people with no permanent homes a small Caravan of camels may carry a family of Nomads and all their belongings here enough grass has been found to give a few days grazing to the lean Nomad flux so Camp is made a nomad tent is a strange house but an extremely practical one for the desert the dwelling must often be moved and this tent can be rolled up and carried on the back of a camel the coarsely woven material helps keep out blowing Desert Sands and being low and r founded the tent offers Little Resistance to strong Desert Winds the family's water bags are hung on a pole tripod coffee is ground with a brass mortar and pessel but aside from this the nomad's cooking equipment is limited to a few battered pots and pan wooden bowls for mixing food wool from the FL is carded between wooden paddles in which hundreds of projecting Nails comb the raw wool into parallel strands these fibers are twisted to form a rude cord and are attached to a wooden bobbin spinning the bobbin tightens the Woolen strands into yarn which may be woven into blankets tents or clothing the wealth of the Nomad is in his flocks and the meat and wool which they produce scattered widely through the desert are Springs or groups of Wells such a water source is called an oasis and here men can live cultivate fields and build a village an oasis can become a lush garden and a desert waste with a profusion of vegetables grains fruits and flowers and important Oasis crop is grain it is harvested by H and may be threshed by camels walking on the grain the pressure of their feet squeezing the kernels of the grain from their husks at such an oasis Market as this passing Nomad tribes may stop to trade meat and woin from their flocks for the fruits or grains of Oasis Farms the palm tree is very important in the desert and men have come to depend upon it for many things in summer temperatur which may reach 130° a Palm Grove may be the only shade within many miles Sahara dwellers have no coal gas or oil for fuel but again the Palm provides Dead Leaves are carefully gathered for fires without the Palm this man would have difficulty finding fuel for cooking and without a Palm's logs for Rafters and Palm leaves for covering his mud house would be without a roof date palms even Supply food among their leaves are clusters of flowers to which boys climb carrying the blossoms of other date palms they sprinkle the pollen from the blossoms on this tree's flowers which are then tied into bunches to hold the pollen natural pollination would produce a few dates but to ensure a heavy crop this additional hand pollination is necessary in a few months the seeds ripen into Rich clusters of fruit in this hot land where there is neither ice nor electricity for refrigeration very few foods can be stored but energy giving dates can be dried and kept indefinitely without Refrigeration next to the Farms of this Oasis is a small gathering of mud houses the number which can live in such a village depends upon the amount of food which can be raised on the nearby FS for although an oasis may seem a pleasant place to live even here man has a constant struggle with nature the fight for water The Palms providing Fuel and shelter the food he eats the water he needs to drink his whole existence may depend upon the Slender thread of a tiny stream or well which may dry up and take life with it the source of such Waters may be rainfall on Mountain slopes hundreds of miles away such Waters seeping deep underground may rise to the surface in a tiny spring running as a stream for a few miles then soaking into the desert disappearing again in other zones water comes from Deep artisian Wells forced to the surface by underground pressure in some wells fine sand May filter through spaces in the rock walls collecting at the bottom in time this will stop the flow of water the dangerous task of keeping such Wells free of clogging sand falls to these Brave well divers entering the well a diver holds onto a guide rope which leads to the bottom then understanding the hazards of such diving says a lengthy prayer an assistant brushes the flies away so they will not disturb the diver now ready the diver fills his lungs and pulls himself to the Bottom by means of the guide rope seconds lengthen into three long minutes before there's a swirl in the water and the exhausted man reappears gasping for air assistance rub his shoulders to restore circulation and the diver returns to a fire of palm branches to warm and after the chilling depth now helpers pull a crude rope from the well more and more rope appears until 100 ft of it has risen and then at the rope's end a tiny sandfill basket comes to the surface filled by the bare hands of the diver in the cold and dark pressure of 100t depth such men bravely risk their lives many times a day to keep these Wells free from clogging sand so that precious water will continue to flow whether from Clear artisian Wells or from slim covered pool in the Sahara water is light water spreading across the Thirsty desert can raise crops and make this Oasis green and habitable but without water holes and oases this would be a Barren land where men could not live the Sahara is the world's greatest desert man has crossed this Wasteland with roads and rails planes and trucks carry Goods to cities where thousands of men live a thousand miles from what we call civilization yet in spite of man's science and effort there Remains the greatest part of the Sahara which few men know where Rolling Dunes block man's Advance where only a lonely Caravan can cross a rocky plane where human life depends upon a hidden well or where a seeping pool of water gives life to an oasis which stands like an island in a sea of sand the people of the Sahara have a hard and uncertain light where a whim of nature may take their water source flood out their Farms and so their existence only men like these really understand the problems of life in the Sahara Desert