NATURE OF THE COUNTRY. 
31 
sion, swore he would shoot the culprit. Scarcely 
with that weapon, O Targhee ! AVhen his excite- 
ment was over, I offered to make a collection among 
the people to indemnify him ; hut he shook his 
head, laughed, and refused. The gun was nearly 
all his property, and he had just bought it new at 
Tripoli.* 
All this part of Northern Africa may be com- 
pared to an archipelago, with seas of various 
breadths dividing the islands. Three days took us 
from Tripoli to Gharian, and three more to Mizdah. 
We vv^ere now advancing across the preliminary 
desert stretching in front of the great plateau of the 
Hamadah, which defends, like a wail of desolation, 
the approaches of Fezzan from the north. At first 
occur broken limestone hills, as previous to Mizdah ; 
but when we approach the plateau the aspect of the 
hills changes, and they are composed chiefly of 
variegated marl mixed with gypsum, and with a 
covering of limestone. Fossil shells were picked up 
at intervals. Some huge, irregular masses, that 
appeared ahead during the first day, were mistaken 
by us for the edge of the plateau; but we broke 
through, and left them right and left as we pro- 
ceeded. They are great masses of limestone and red 
clay, in which are scooped deep valleys, many of 
them supplied with abundant herbage. As yet we 
* The Orientals are prevented by superstitious fear from allowing 
any article destroyed by accident to be replaced in the way men- 
tioned. — Ed. 
