ROCKY SAHARA. 
179 
viating track for more than nine hours, and pitched 
our tents in a small and nameless wady, covered 
with a sprinkling of herbage. This was a trying 
day for the camels, the ground being rough with 
loose stones. How different is all this from Euro- 
pean notions of a desert, or level expanse of sand ! 
With some few exceptions, the Sahara is a region 
covered by comparatively low, rocky hills, forming 
valleys here and there, supplied with trees, and 
herbage, and water. We are now in a really unin- 
habited spot ; scarcely a bird is seen, or a lizard, or 
a beetle, or any living thing, save a few Hies that 
still follow the caravan on unwearied wing, and 
buzz with moderated ferocity about the noses of the 
camels. 
What fantastic forms did the rock assume to- 
day ! Now its pinnacles bristled up like a forest of 
pines ; now there seemed to rise the forms of castles 
and houses, and even groups of human beings. All 
this is black sandstone — hideously black, unlovely, 
unsociable, savage-looking. 'T is a mere wilderness 
of rock, thrown in heaps about, wiih valleys, or 
trenches, or crevices, through which the caravan 
slowly winds. This is our first cloudy day. May 
we have many such ! We feel little of the sun's 
power, although there is little or no wind. We 
must have reached a considerable elevation. 
I begin to find it necessary to keep a tight rein 
over our servants, otherwise our encampment and 
party would always be in disorder. Mohammed 
