THE CONFLAGRATION. 359 ed its progress with a troubled conscience and an anxious heart. Now it paused and I flattered myself that there was the end, hut the next moment the black clouds rolled up denser than ever. Thus it wavered for some time, but at last thank God ! it seemed to fade gradually away, and I gave my> self the hope that it had not extended beyond the jut of land whereon it was kindled.

At noon we passed the locality marked on D'Arnaud's map as El-Ais, but there was no sign of habitation. The rai's said there had been a town some distance inland, but it is now deserted. The river here makes a curve to the west, and our small stern-sail was bound to the foremast, in order to use the side-wind. My sailors were unremitting in their labors, and rowed, poled and tracked the whole day. I sat in the sun all the while, looking on the incomparable shores. We saw multitudes of gazelles along the water's edge, on both sides. They were in companies of forty or fifty, and so little shy, that they often allowed us to approach within fifty yards.

Wild fowl were as abundant as ever, and I greatly regretted having brought no rifle and fowling-piece. When we reached the northern extremity of Hassaniyeh, at sunset, I went ashore on the eastern bank, hoping to find a gazelle. The thickets were almost impenetrable, and I made my way with difficulty into a more open space, where the trees grew in clumps and the lion-paths had broken a way between them. Each of these clumps was woven into a single mass with vines, forming coverts of deepest shade, wherein a beast might crouch unobserved, even at mid-day. The ground was covered with dry burgrass, whose heads pierced through my clothes. One of the sailors accompanied me with a club, but was in such deadly