hand: saw a very large herd of antelopes, which I was silly enough to follow ; but, of course, without reaching them. A t five stopped, having made about twenty miles N.E. We had a fine night, with much dew. The poor Negress was very ill and weak, although in no pain; her master pretended to be convinced that she was only affecting sickness, and beat her accordingly. Saturday, March 11 th.- . At. 7. 30. A.M. we set out; road as yesterday. A t noon came to the Wadey Zemzem Mp in which we found a well, of apparently Roman workmanship, and 84 feet in depth: the water was salt, and very putrid. This Wadey is of great length, running N .E . and S.W. Gherzeh is situated in it, and it runs to the sea at Tawurgha. We made eight or nine miles nprth; my poor Maherry was again very lame ; put another sandal on him : fine warm day. A general washing and greasing took place with the whole Kaflle. Sunday, 12th March.—We proceeded at 7. 30. A. M .; road as yesterday : had a stock of water for three days. I saw a large bird resembling a goose in form; body and neck white, wings of a dusky white, barred with dark brown; it escaped me in the bushes. At four came to a stony plain, with small shrubs. At six stopped, having made about twenty miles N.W. by N . : thick oppressive weather, with swarms of sand f l i e s th e slaves very much fatigued. I saw several coveys of partridges, and shot some birds resembling thrushes in size, but with longer tails, and of a reddish brown colour: they fly in flocks, and in their restlessness and twittering much resemble sparrows. We lay amongst some bushes, and secured our animals, as we were on the centre of a desert, and feared their straying. • Monday, 13th March.—We went onwards at 7. 30. over a stony plain until noon, when we came to a broad Wadey of sand, having a few scattered shrubs, and a strong south wind darkening the air with clouds of sand. Came to a well, but found it dry: our water was out, having been distributed without restriction. This caused no little sensation in the Kaffl6, as we were said to be two days from any other weR ^fortunately, however, the Arabs, in wandering about, found one which had been newly made amongst some hillocks, about a mile from our track. Many flocks of large blue pigeons were flying round us. I shot one in very good condition. We travelled north-north-west ten miles. Tuesday, 14th March.—At 7. 30. went on, the weather very fine; had two fruitless chases after partridges and gazelles. The sick Negress rode my horse, and was abused every five minutes by her master for feigning sickness. I yesterday shot an owl of the size of a dove, and having very beautiful plumage; its eyes were marked black and yellow in circles, and it had those bunches of feathers, called horns, on each side the head. This day it became so putrid that I was obliged to give up the idea of stuffing it. A t about a mile from our resting-place, was the water I have spoken of. We filled our gerbas there, but it was very bad, and my horse, as in a former case, refused to drink it. At 5. 30. we halted, not having made more than fifteen miles, as our camels stopped repeatedly to eat. We went on about north-north-west: passed this day several spots with young corn growing, belonging to the Orfilly Arabs. The wadey we were in is called Sofajeen and is of great extent from east to west. Wednesday, 15th March.—We found that three of our camels had strayed in the night, two of mine, and one of Lizari’s. We sent Arabs in search of them, and waited until noon, when we loaded the other camels, leaving the loads of the stray ones with two Arabs, together with some water and provisions. As there was no water, for the slaves, we were obliged to move on, intending to u u 2
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