THE CONSTELLATIONS SHARABA. 
127 
through^ as at sea. On the way from Mourzuk we 
had hot and cold blasts together ; but now we are 
out in the desert, we find the climate much more 
temperate than in the city. I hope and pray that 
I shall be able to bear up against the heat. 
What a magnificent sky we had last night ! 
— never did I behold the stars in greater glory. 
The Scorpion was brilliant, if not fierce; and the 
constellation on his right shone splendidly. At 
about eight o'clock Jupiter was setting towards the 
horizon like a sun ! 
'l^th. — We left Tesaoua at length, at three in the 
afternoon. The boat and our servants had gone on 
before with the Tuaricks, who prefer not travelling 
in the dark, if possible. We can often start after 
them in this way, and catch them up by pushing on 
some hours after sunset. Our course lay south this 
evening. The heavens, before the rising of the moon, 
had a most luminous appearance ; Jupiter was seen 
only about an hour above the horizon, and the Milky 
Way was very conspicuous, but at eight o'clock de- 
scribed only a small segment in the heavens. 
We reached Sharaba at eight, and halted. This 
is a sandy valley, with herbage for the camels ; the 
water, not very good, is a few feet from the surface, 
and issues from some rocks. There are no date-palms 
about the well, as reported, but a few^ stunted ones 
are found a mile or tw^o higher up. The surface of 
the desert is broken into small mounds, crowned 
with the ethel-tree. 
