COMMUNICATIONS. 
129 
which are compofed of hides, and their wealth confifts in the 
multitude of their cows and llieep. 
Four days are employed in croffing thefe fortunate diftri8:s : 
the fixth conduds the caravan to the entrance \of the vaft and 
burning Defart of Bilma. Surrounded by this dreary folitude, 
the Traveller fees with a dejeded eye the dead bodies of the birds 
that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions ; 
and as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining paf- 
fage, liftens with horror to the voice of the driving blaft, the 
only found that interrupts the awful repofe of the Defart. 
On the eleventh day from their entrance on thefe fcorching 
fands, the caravan arrives in the fertile plains that enccmpafs the 
Town of Domboo, the approach to which is enlivened by the 
frequent appearance of the majeftic Oftrichj and of the gay but 
fearful Antelope. 
From thence, in about five days, they reach the City of Ka- 
nem, the capital of an extenfive and fertile province, of v/hich 
it bears the name, and in which the inhabitants, who are com- 
pofed of MafTelmen and Pagans, breed multitudes of cattle, and 
raife innumerable horfes for the fervice of the Kinp-. 
o 
S A jour- 
