270 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. VII. 
\ 
CHAPTEE VII. 
OF FEZZAN. 
Aspect of the Country — State of Cultivation — Minerals — Animals — Birds — Vegetable 
Productions — Fruits — Esculents — Time and Manner of cultivating Grain — V^ater 
— Towns — Food of Inhabitants — Possibility of improving Agriculture — Tenure of 
Lands — Weights and Measures — Government — Principal People — Character of the 
Natives — Inroads into the Negro Countries — State of the Slave Trade — Crimes and 
Punishments — Character of the Natives — Religion — State of Literature and In- 
genuity — Language — State of the Women — Records — Slavery and the Slave Trade 
— Laws relative to the Issue of Slaves. 
The northern boundary is Bonjera, in latitude 30° 35' north, of 
which I have aheady spoken ; and Tegerry, in latitude 24° 4' north, 
is the southern, which is inhabited by Tibboo of the mountain 
tribes. Its eastern boundary is the Harutz mountains behind 
Temissa, and Oubari in the west. 
The general aspect of the country presents an almost universally 
barren appearance ; fine yeUow sand, and a species of gravel, cover- 
ing the whole face of the plains, save where the Soudah and Harutz 
extend. The country is very dry, there being only three springs in 
this immense tract ; they are near Traghan ; but water is found in 
many places at ten or twenty feet below the surface, in clay or beds 
of salt. There is no vegetation on the desert, unless in some of the 
wadeys, where are found prickly bushes for camels, called Agoul 
