Ayed’s camels with me. The remainder of them I
sent with the heavier portion of my baggage, under
the charge of our friends of the Wargla caravan, by
the direct road to Biskra, where I subsequently
found them on my return.
It was at Tougourt that we got our first definite
information as to the exact whereabouts of the
objects of our search. While making inquiries in
the market among the caravan men, El Haj met
a man from El Wad, who told him that when he
had left that town a few days before, some Tawareks
were encamped in the desert at a distance of only
a few hours from it. We accordingly made no stay
at Tougourt, but on the morning after our arrival
set out along the road to El Wad with a confident
feeling that at last we were going to succeed in our
search.
Our way lay for about half an hour over soft,
heavy sand; we then emerged into the dry bed of a
small shott. On leaving this we got on to higher
ground with a few small bushes scattered about it
and an occasional small gravelly hill showing above
the sandy level of the soil. By degrees as we
advanced these hills became fewer, until, as the
sand became deeper, they finally ceased and we
entered among the dunes which form such a prominent
feature of the scenery of this part of the
desert.
El Wad is situated in that great Erg or sand-
belt which stretches right across the western Sahara
from the Gulf of Gabes almost to Cape Blanco, on
the Atlantic coast. Our road after the first few