{"product_id":"2940013580299","title":"The Desert Home","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a great desert in the interior of North America.  It is almost\u003cbr\u003eas large as the famous Saara of Africa.  It is fifteen hundred miles\u003cbr\u003elong, and a thousand wide.  Now, if it were of a regular shape--that is\u003cbr\u003eto say, a parallelogram--you could at once compute its area, by\u003cbr\u003emultiplying the length upon the breadth; and you would obtain one\u003cbr\u003emillion and a half for the result--one million and a half of square\u003cbr\u003emiles.  But its outlines are as yet very imperfectly known; and although\u003cbr\u003eit is fully fifteen hundred miles long, and in some places a thousand in\u003cbr\u003ebreadth, its surface-extent is probably not over one million of square\u003cbr\u003emiles, or twenty-five times the size of England.  Fancy a desert\u003cbr\u003etwenty-five times as big as all England!  Do you not think that it has\u003cbr\u003ereceived a most appropriate name when it is called the _Great American\u003cbr\u003eDesert_?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, my young friend, what do you understand by a desert?  I think I can\u003cbr\u003eguess.  When you read or hear of a desert, you think of a vast level\u003cbr\u003eplain, covered with sand, and without trees, or grass, or _any_ kind of\u003cbr\u003evegetation.  You think, also, of this sand being blown about in thick\u003cbr\u003eyellow clouds, and no water to be met with in any direction.  This is\u003cbr\u003eyour idea of a desert, is it not?  Well, it is not altogether the\u003cbr\u003ecorrect one.  It is true that in almost every desert there are these\u003cbr\u003esandy plains, yet are there other parts of its surface of a far\u003cbr\u003edifferent character, equally deserving the name of _desert_.  Although\u003cbr\u003ethe interior of the great Saara has not been fully explored, enough is\u003cbr\u003eknown of it to prove that it contains large tracts of mountainous and\u003cbr\u003ehilly country, with rocks and valleys, lakes, rivers, and springs.\u003cbr\u003eThere are, also, fertile spots, at wide distances from each other,\u003cbr\u003ecovered with trees, and shrubs, and beautiful vegetation.  Some of these\u003cbr\u003espots are small, while others are of large extent, and inhabited by\u003cbr\u003eindependent tribes, and even whole kingdoms of people.  A fertile tract\u003cbr\u003eof this kind is called an oasis; and, by looking at your map, you will\u003cbr\u003eperceive that there are many oases in the Saara of Africa.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47178092871920,"sku":"2940013580299","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013580299_p0.jpg?v=1763583154","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013580299","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}