BAD WATER THE SAND. 
61 
kind of desert, under the enervating influence of 
the gheblee, or hot wind ; the thermometer in the 
sand reached 130°. Although the camels were eight 
hours on foot, little progress was made. I stopped 
an hour to rest in Wady El-Jumar, where were two 
or three palm-groves. One of the Fezzanees ferreted 
out a lot of dates, hidden in the sand, and taking 
some distributed them amongst us. 
Thus refreshed we pushed on to encamp in Wady 
El-Takadafah, where there is a well of water, good 
to drink, but disagreeable in smell, like that of 
Bonjem. The odour resembles that of a sewer, and 
is produced by hydrogen of sulphur. We have had 
good water every day in this sandy tract, and I have 
no doubt that some may be found in every wady, 
a little below the surface. Birds begin now to re- 
appear : a few swallows, a dove, and some small 
twitterers, were seen to give life to the otherwise 
melancholy wadys. 
Dr. Overweg examined the sand, which rolled 
in great heaps on every side, and found it to consist 
of grains of four kinds, — white, yellow, red, and 
black ; the latter colour caused by the presence of 
iron. These variegated sands form the basis of sand- 
stone, and may be a decomposition of sandstone. 
The sand near Tripoli is of a finer sort, consisting 
mostly of a decomposition of limestone. There is 
a blue-black earth in the wadys, arising from the 
wood, a species of crumbling coal. 
This evening we had a famous emhroglio be- 
