40 JOURNEY FROM the same time grateful to the feelings ; and one may here dream delightfully of undisturbed tranquillity and independence, and of freedom from all the cares, the follies, and the vices of the world.

Vhenever the wind is cool, without being too strong, the purity of the air is at once refreshing and exhilarating ; and, if his stock of water be not very low, the traveller feels disposed to be well pleased with every thing Such was precisely the feeling with which our party entered upon the tract of sandy desert before them. We were glad to escape from the continual din and bustle which had attended our preparations at Tripoly ; and the very absence of harassing workmen and tradesmen was alone a source of real satisfaction : the coolness of the sea-breeze was unusually refreshing, at least, we persuaded ourselves that it was so ; and the anticipation of an interesting journey was acting very strongly upon our minds.

After quitting the cultivated grounds of Tagiura, the traveller is left to pursue his course (in going eastward) as his experience or his compass may direct — there being no indication whatever of any track in the sands of the wide plain before him. As our principal object, in this part of our journey, was to obtain a correct dehneation of the coast, we pursued our route along the margin of the sea ; which from Tagiura to Cape Sciarra takes the form of a bay, at the head of which lies Wady Kamleh. It was late in the afternoon of the sixth •f- These solitary enjoyments are by no means overdrawn ; every traveller accustomed to desert journeys must have experienced them : and the late lamented Burckhardt has frequently been heard to declare, that his most pleasant hours in travelling have been passed in the desert.