OUR GUIDE LOSES HIS WAY. 321 



timed our camels to walk at over three miles, and the 

 baggage-camels at two and a half miles per hour, we cal- 

 culated upon catching up with them before sunset, but 

 when darkness set in they were not within hail. As 

 time went on we began to think that our guide must 

 have lost his way, and our fears of this increased pro- 

 portionately as he changed his course constantly from 

 side to side, until the barking of several dogs far in 

 the distance to our left proved that they had been well 

 founded, for he at once turned off in that direction, and 

 at last, to our great relief, we caught up with the others 

 when wending their way up a hill. On the summit of 

 this hill we found the telegraph station, where all under- 

 stood we should pass the night. It is a great comfort 

 that Ranfurly finds camel-riding so little fatiguing, and 

 on his arrival here after six hours in the saddle he was 

 certainly less exhausted than myself. The soldiers 

 stationed here have been most willing to lend us any 

 aid, and wanted us to sleep in a straw hut, but we find 

 that placing our angareps outside one is more conducive 

 to comfort and to obtaining air. Coke and party only 

 left here at midday, owing to the weak condition of 

 their camels, and as we found a camel lying in our 

 path which had recently died it probably belonged to 

 them. A few thunderstorms have passed over the 

 desert lately, which have made a great change in the 

 appearance of the mimosas since we last saw them, for 



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