60 WADY EL-MAKMAK — LIZARDS. 
To-day I found the veil of my sister-in-law of 
essential service. Doubled, it shielded ray eyes 
perfectly from the hot wind and sand. It serves 
also as an excellent protection for the eyes against 
the flies whilst I am writing. This is the second 
day of the hot wind. In the evening we heard 
crickets singing in the scorching sand. At mid-day 
the thermometer^ when buried, rose to 122° Fahr. 
We encamped in Wady El-Makmak, where we 
had good water, far superior to that at Guber. As 
in nearly all sandy places, a hole is scooped in the 
sand and then covered over, or left to be filled by 
the action of the wind after the khafilah is sup- 
plied. Two pretty palms point, as with two fingers, 
to the buried wells of El-Makraak. 
Some of our people noticed the lizard to-day. 
This seems to be the omnipresent animal of the 
Sahara, inhabiting its most desolate regions when 
no other living creature is seen. It changes in 
species with the nature of the country. To-day, 
those seen are large ; very soon they will become 
small, meagre, and will change colour. In the 
valleys I have observed them nearly the same 
colour as the sandy soil. Perhaps the beetle is 
nearly as common as the lizard in the desert, being- 
found in its most arid and naked wastes. It is 
generally a big, round, black-bottle beetle, which 
produces a trail in the sand that may be mis- 
taken for that of the serpent. 
Still the following day we had to cross the same 
