moved on with the camels. We made this day twenty-one miles, and halted at Chukcema, which means half way. We lost more than twenty of our camels this day, by their straying out of the path. Jan. 20.—We were promised to find water early; and as the animals had not drank the night before, we pushed on with our horses: we were told the wells were near ; but it was a long twenty miles, over loose rolling sand hills. At less than half way, we passed two hills of dark sandstone, called Geisgae (Dhubba— the hyena), which had been in sight great part of yesterday; and at 1. 30. arrived at a wadey called Dibla (Inchat tegeel—heavy stone). In the wadey near is a little sprinkling of rusty grass, which the animals devoured with an avidity that would have done credit to better fare. The water was extremely brackish, and strongly impregnated with trona; but it was fresh and cool, and therefore a delightful beverage to us. In the wadey Dibla stands a detached conical table-topped hill: the summit had a black rugged appearance from below, and was formed of a sort of bituminous earth, dry and crumbling to the touch. Under this were layers or strata of thin plates, almost resembling foil, of brittle schistose clay, of black, yellow, and green: these also crumbled on receiving the pressure of the hand*. About * Some curious tubular, hollow, corallifonn productions were picked up in the sand : they appear o f very recent formation, and evidently produced by rain and wind acting on the sand. The particles are most minute ; when broken, die substance has a shining glassy appearance: some lie horizontally, but the general position is perpendicular. The external surface is rough : the size varies, both in length and circumference, from a few lines to an inch and a half in the latter, and from an inch to a foot in the former direction. The wells are holes, about eighteen inches deep : the water has a slight taste o f carbonate o f soda, that was strong at first, but diminished greatly after some water had been drawn. The holes fill very fast. Th e saline impregnation arises, very probably, from the earth around falling, and being blown into the holes. Dibla is bounded on the north by black sandstone and quartz hills, which extend some way to the eastward; on the south bv sand hills, and by a winding wadey on the east. In the middle there are several small ten miles from Dibla we came to Chegarub, and four miles further to Kersherma, where we rested for the night. No wood or water. Jan. 22— A tedious day over sandy deserts, without even thè relief of a dark hill to look forward to. About sun-set we came to a spot with some little sprinkling of a grass called sheet, and some fine grass, with a flower called nisse. Made twenty-four miles, and halted at Xasama-fbma-hamse, or the five trees. No wood nor water. Alarm of Tibboos,—all mounted and turned out. Jan. 23.—Desert as yesterday. High sand hills*. Burmenmadua (all sand): At three in the afternoon, we arrived at an extensive wadey, called Aghadem. Here are several wells of excellent water, forage, and numbers of the tree called suag, the red berries of which are nearly as good as cranberries. We broke in on the retreats of about a hundred gazelles, who were enjoying the fertility of the valley. I t was, however, with great difficulty, from their extreme shyness, that we shot one, which afforded us an ample meal. A road conical hillocks with table-tops : the lower part is formed o f a fine schistus, o f different colours, that next the base light and white; over that, green, exactly resembling large well-dried leaves o f plants, which separate into the finest layers ; the top is a black bituminous matter, which crumbles into small pieces by the slightest touch : these hillocks are from thirty to forty feet high, the probable height o f the valley in former days ; and if is not unlikely that the bituminous matter is a vegetable deposit. There are a few acacias but so few, that we could procure no firewood, and the camels very little food. A number o f round semi-vitrified small stones were found on the sands, which the people collected to use as bullets. The mode o f formation appears the same as the coralli- form substances I have mentioned. These substances, in great quantities, are said to be formed after the rains that every now and then occur in this quarter. * There Js grass in abundance, and small mounds covered with a tetrandrous plant, called suag : its fruit a small drupa, which is in great request in Bomou and Soudan, for removing sterility in females. Boo Khaloom related one instance o f a female, who had been in that state eighteen years, but was cured by the fruit. It is sweetish and hot to the taste, approaching to the Sisymbrium nasturtium. In passing the plant, a heavy narcotic smell is always perceived.—W . 0 .
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