132 
Lx\RGE SERPENTS. 
iiions also experienced similar visits, and appeared no less 
dismayed by them than myself. 
The whole of the 6th was employed in watering our 
camels ; we procured for them stalks of hedtjsarum-alkagi, 
and branches of the tamarisk, which grows on the plain 
at some distance from the wells : these were quickly de - 
voured. This night we lay down as on the preceding, and I 
was again aimoyed with the sight of enormous serpents. 
At four o'clock in the morning of the 7th, we directed 
our course to the N. N. E., among the chain of sand-hills 
called Helk ; but these are not by much so high as those we 
had crossed the day before. Sidi-Aly, whom I questioned 
on the subject, and who at times vouchsafed an answer, 
assured me that in none of his former travels in the Soudan 
had he seen such lofty sand-hills ; his route had always 
been more northerly. 
As our road was better than that of the preceding day, 
we travelled at least two miles an hour. About half past 
eleven we halted at the foot of the chain, on a somewhat 
hilly plain of grey gravel, the finest I had yet seen. 
On the 8th, we set out at four in the morning, taking a 
northerly direction, over a sandy and tolerably level soil. 
Near noon we halted in a plain of firm ground, covered with 
sharp flints as flat as slate, and mixed with small gravel ; 
this plain is surrounded by gently swelling downs. I longed 
to emerge from these frightful deserts, where the only indi- 
cations of animated nature were the distressing east wind, 
and some light-footed antelopes, which swept across them 
with the rapidity of an arrow. I saw in several places 
skeletons of these animals, dried up by the burning sun; 
they had undoubtedly died of thirst. 
On the 9th, at about one in the morning, we pursued 
our journey northwards ; the soil was covered with black 
gravel, and studded with pointed rocks of the same colour. 
A little before eleven we halted at the wells of Amoul-Taf, 
