456 REPORT ON CAILLIE'S TRAVELS. 
It was the season of low water : in some places the river 
is a mile in width, and in others much narrower; its 
depth and rapidity are variable. He noted and described, 
as he went along, the branches and islands, and especially 
lake Debo (the same which is known and designed upon 
the maps under the name of Dibbie, but misplaced), and 
he furnishes particulars, as certain as they are new, con- 
cerning the whole course of the stream. 
At length he arrived at Cabra, the port of Timbuctoo, 
on the 1 9th of April, and the next day entered the town. 
After he had taken sketches of the dwellings and other 
edifices of this city, remarked every thing worthy of 
observation, and acquainted himself with the course of 
the neighbouring waters, he joined a caravan setting out 
for Morocco. On the 4th of May he commenced his 
journey, with eight hundred camels, loaded with all sorts 
of merchandise from the interior, and in six days arrived 
at el-Araouan: there the caravan was increased by six 
hundred camels, and in eight days more it reached the 
wells of Telig. All the wells, whether of sweet or 
brackish water, and all the stations, are carefully noted 
by M. Caillie, in this journey across the great desert. 
The season of the burning east winds aggravated the 
toils and privations of this painful journey. On the 
19th of May he left el-Araouan, and it was not till the 
29th of June that he reached el-Harib, where the caravan 
split into several divisions, and on the 23rd of July he 
entered Tafilet. He rested at length, on the 12th of 
August, in the very spot where, in the fourteenth century. 
