LOSS OF MY THERMOMETER. 201 and the same gray vapor tempered the sunshine and toned down the brilliant tints of the landscape.

We passed several small burying-grounds, in -which many of the graves were decked with small white flags stuck on poles, and others had bowls of water placed at the head — a custom for which I could get no explanation. Near El Bagheyr, where we struck the river again, we met two Bedouins, who had turned merchants and were taking a drove of camels to Egypt. One of them had the body of a gazelle which he had shot two days before, hanging at his saddle, and offered to sell to me, but the flesh had become too dry and hard for my teeth. Ali succeeded in buying a pair of fowls for three piastres, and brought me, besides, some doum-nuts, of the last year's growth. I could make no impression on them until the rind had been pounded with stones. The taste was like that of dry gingerbread, and when fresh, must be very agreeable. In the fields I noticed a new kind of grain, the heads of which resembled rice. The natives called it dooJihn, and said that it was even more nutritious than wheat or dourra, though not so palatable.

. I signalized New- Year's Day, 1852, by breaking my thermometer, which fell out of my pocket as I was mounting my dromedary. It was impossible to replace it, and one point wherein my journey might have been useful was thus lost. The variations of temperature at different hours of the day were very remarkable, and on leaving Korosko I had commenced a record which I intended to keep during the whole of my stay in Central Africa.* In the evening I found in the * The following record of the temperature, from the time of leaving Korosko to the date of the accident which deprived me of the thermom-