264 SALE OF ANIMALS BY AUCTION.

vast numbers of a kind of sea-urchin, which lived at the bottom of the water, and were of a most formidable variety. They were very large, and furnished with very long, sharp spikes, which broke off on being touched, leaving their points embedded in the flesh. I think they were poisonous ; for Lort Phillips got some in his hand, and suffered agonies in consequence, the painful effects of which did not wear off for some time.

We sold by auction our hygeeits and the camel which Shereef the waiter always rode with the luncheon when on the march : and they of course fetched very low prices, as buyers knew we were leaving, and must dispose of them. Lort Phillips's fetched the highest price, — forty-five and a half dollars, having cost eighty. It was a female, and a wonderfully easy goer ; in fact, I never saw a better. My beautiful animal only brought twentyfour ; he cost me forty at Cassala, and was in as good condition when I sold him as when bought. We were, of course, able to look after our own riding-camels to a considerable extent ourselves, and, moreover, told off those men we considered the most careful to take charge of them. I was very loath to part with mine ; and, had I been intending to return to the country the following winter, I should have endeavoured to make some arrangement to have him kept for me. He was fast and easy, though not so much so as Lort Phillips's, which would go seven or eight miles an hour, and be comfortable to ride at that pace. My animal made scarcely any noise when I wanted to mount or dismount, — a rare virtue in camels ; a slight jerk at the rope which did duty as bridle, and he would go off at a trot ; he never had a sore back ; and his coat was wonderfully clean, not covered with ticks as most camels' are.

We had lost numbers of our camels, had given away a good many, and for those that remained on our arrival at Massawa