1869. | REPORT OF MR. W. JESSE. 115 
of what we supposed to be a Panther. These brutes had passed by 
our camels, horses, milch-goats, and fires without harming anything. 
In the morning, after a useless search for the brute of the preceding 
night, on which we naturally desired to wreak our vengeance, we 
buried the poor victim, covered him with a pile of stones, and left for 
Asoos. From here we started the same day, and halted at Kooserit. 
On the 31st we left Kooserit, and, halting at Anagully, arrived in 
the evening at Kanzal, where I managed to stroll out, but I was 
still very ill. I fired at two Panthers without effect. At 6 p.m. on 
the 4th of July we started across the desert to Ain, on the’ river 
Lebka, which rises in the hills and flows across the plains to the sea. 
I stopped to look at a Bedouin village, consisting of about 100 mat 
huts. The inhabitants were a portion of nomad tribes which pas- 
ture their flocks, during the wet season, on the coast, moving up 
towards the highlands as the pasturage fails. We passed through 
the Ostrich-country, but we did not see any. During the night, the 
moon being up, we saw several herds of Antelopes. 
We arrived at Ain at about 10 o’clock. In the afternoon I went 
out, and succeeded in procuring some specimens. This place is very 
prettily situated, forming quite an oasis in the desert. A bright 
stream runs through grass and high reed jungle, bordered with 
tamarisks and other trees; a background of rugged barren hills, 
rising tier above tier, enhances the beauty of the scene. 
On the 7th of July we left Ain for Mahabar; and when there I 
began to regain my health. Between Ain and Mahabar we found 
spoor of Elephants, evidently in a state of migration from the low- 
lands to the highlands. At Mahabar I added considerably to my 
collection, particularly by specimens of a small hawk, which I take to 
be the Misus sphenurus of Riippell. Mr. Blanford obtained several. 
The night before our arrival a native had been killed by a Lion. The 
animal left his track by the waterside, and it was taken up by Mr. 
Blanford and Capt. Mokeler without effect. I took up the track 
of a solitary Elephant with a like result. At 5 o’clock a.m. the 
next day we continued our march, halting at Gelamet for lunch, and 
arrived at 6 p.m. at Kokai, or the City of the Lions. Between 
Gelamet and Kokai the scenery improved greatly, exchanging rather 
stunted tamarinds and barren mimosas for the baba tree, or 4dan- 
sonia, the cactus-like Euphorbia, and a dense jungle, with a strong 
undergrowth of rank grass and aloes. 
Here the climate was truly European, and, indeed, at night in- 
tensely cold. The fauna began to show the peculiarities which I had 
expected at Undel Wells, and in which I was disappointed; the 
transition was so sudden that on the first day I procured three 
species of “ Roller,” a Parrot, and several other birds. 
The next morning we found on inquiry that Elephants were in 
the neighbourhood ; so, having supplied my taxidermist with ma- 
terials for his day’s work, I joined Capt. Mokeler and Mr, Blanford 
in an excursion in search of thein. 
I remained two days longer in this neighbourhood collecting with 
success, and then proceeded over the pass to Bejook on the river 
