THE SOURCE OF THE NILE 336 
‘of the largeft kind, mofily males; fo that the Arabs make 
this a favourite flation, after the grafs is burnt, efpecially 
the young part of them, who are hunters. 
We reached Imferrha at half paft eleven, the water 
being about half a mile diftant to the S.W. The weils 
are fituated upon a fmall ridge that runs nearly eaft and 
aeft. At one extremity of this is a fmall-pointed mountain, 
aipon which was formerly a village belonging to the Arabs, 
called Jehaina, now totally deftroyed by the hunting parties 
of the Daveina, the great tyrants of this country, who, to- 
gether with the fearcity of water, are the principal! caufes 
that this whole territory 1s defolate. For though the foil. 
is fandy and improper for agriculture, yet it is thickly over- 
Brown with trees; and were the places where waiter is 
found fufficiently ftocked with inhabitants, great numbers 
of cattle might be paftured here, every {pecies of which 
live upon the leaves and the young branches of trees, even 
on fpots where grafs is abundant. 
On the 2oth, at fix o’clock in the morning we fet out 
from Imferrha, and in two hours arrived: at Rathid, where 
ave were furprifed to fee the branches of the fhrubs and 
buthes all covered with a fhell of that {pecies-of univalve 
called Turbines, white and red; fome of them from three 
to four inches long, and not to be diftinguifhed by the niceft 
eye from thofe fea-fhells, of the fame {pecies, which are 
brought in great quantities from the Weit India iflands, 
ef{pecially St Domingo. 
How thefe came firft in a fandy defert fo far from the 
fea is a difquifition I fhall not now enter into, There are 
Uuz2 of 
