All sorts of transitions are found. Sometimes there are thickets of thorny bushes. Occasionally scattered clumps of woodland alternate with stretches of grass or what looks like grass. Near the desert one finds pioneer acacias dotted singly here and there; these are the scouts or skirmishers of the army of trees which is trying to occupy and colonize the desert. This explains why this sort of scrub occurs in so many parts of the world. On the European side of the Mediterranean, the dry climate of Spain, the Riviera, and Greece must no doubt at one time have supported a scrub vegetation. At present it is difficult to tell what this was. There is a sort of scrub called _Maqui_ which covers parts especially of Corsica and other Mediterranean countries. In Greece, also, thorny, woody little bushes are very common. But these are just what the goats, who are fiends from a vegetable point of view, have been unable to destroy. We cannot tell what sort of country revealed itself to the first Phoenicians when they landed in Southern Spain to traffic with the savage inhabitants, or what met the eyes of Ulysses when he made his great voyage to unknown lands. But there are places in the world where man has never either kept domestic animals or cultivated the soil. Possibly Spain and Sicily in those early days were not unlike parts of British East Africa, such as the Taru Desert between Mombasa and Kibwezi. The following may give an idea of how this scrub or desert appeared to me. Gnarled and twisted acacias of all sorts and sizes, usually with bright white bark and a thin, naked appearance, cover the whole country. Amongst these one finds the curious _trees_ of Euphorbia. In Britain Euphorbias are little green uninteresting weeds, but here some of them are twenty to thirty feet high, with many slender whip-like branches, but no leaves. Others are exactly like Cactus, and take on weird, candelabra-like shapes. Nobody meddles with them for, if the slightest cut is made in the bark, out pours an acrid, white milk which raises painful blisters, and may even cause blindness if a drop touches the eyes. Almost all the plants are either covered with thorns or protected by resins, gums, or poisonous secretions. Between the scrubby trees the soil is dotted over by little tufts of grass or sedge, but these are so far apart that the tint of the landscape is that of the soil. Game is abundant everywhere. Sometimes it is a small bustard or a persistent, raucous guinea-fowl that affords a chance for a good dinner. Occasionally a tiny gazelle, the "paa," with large ears, springs out of the thorns and vanishes down the path. I saw footprints of giraffes, and came across ostriches more than once. I also made a persevering attempt to slay a Clarke's gazelle, an animal with enormous ears and a long thin neck.[45] [45] _Naturalist in Mid-Africa._