COMMUNICATIONS. 
121 
To the laft of thefe the name of Defarts without Water is 
emphatically given; a name that conveys to an Arab ear the imhammed. 
fearful idea of an intenfe and fufFocating heat, of the total abfence 
of vegetable life, and of the hazard of a dreadful death. For 
though the movement of the fliifting fands is not fo rapid as to 
endanger the fafety of the caravan, yet as the fcorching heat of 
the fun-beams, confined and refleded by the hills of fand, hourly 
diminifhes the ftore of water, and as the breadth of feveral of 
thofe defarts is that of a ten days journey, the hazard of perifh- 
ing with third is fometimes fatally experienced. 
All means of afcertaining the rout by land-marks, the ufual imiiammed. 
guides in other parts of the wildernefs, are here deftroyed by 
the varying forms and lliifting pofition of the hills ; but from 
anxious obfervation and continued practice, the camel-drivers ac- 
quire a fufficient knowledge of the bearings of the fun and flars 
to dire£t them in their way. 
Such are the expedients by which the difficulties of the Defart 
are in general overcome : thofe which are prefented by the broad 
current of the impetuous Niger, though much more eafily, are 
not fo frequently furm.ounted. 
Of this river, which in Arabic is fometimes called Neel il imhammed. 
R Kibeer, 
