ROUTE TO TIMBUCTOO. O the day, and occasionally by the smell of the earth, which they take up in their hands. For the first twenty days after they enter this wilderness they have no water ; during this period, the caravan is obliged to carry water in goatskins \ as not a drop is to be found by digging. On this account, about a third part of the camels are employed in carrying water, and even with this quantity the camels are often left for three or four days without any. They never use mules in this part of the journey ; they neither find the shell "", nor the thorny plant so common in the deserts of Africa.

The country on the bordei's of this desert, to the right and left, is inhabited by roving Arabs, at the distance of tlu'ee or four dayvS from the track which the caravan pursues ; and is said to be partly plain, and in part hilly, with a little grass, and a few shrubs ; when the cattle of these Arabs have consumed what grows in one spot, their owners remove to another. The caravan, though it generally consisted of about 400 men well armed, seeks its route through tlie most unfrequented part of the desert, from a dread of the attacks of the Arabs. The hottest wind is that from the east-south-east, and is called Esshume " ; the coldest is that * These goat-skins, when containing water, are called by the Arabs hereby or ghireb, plur. kerba or ghirba sing. ™The sheh is the wormseed plant, the thorny plant here alluded to is the wild myrtle.

" Esshume or the hot wind. For a particular descrip-B 3