328 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. IX. 
for it, straining my eyes in all directions, but to no purpose : I 
succeeded, however, in galloping back to the spot where I had last 
seen the tracks, and fired my gun, but nothing replied to me, or 
broke on the awful stillness around. My situation now became 
very alarming, and my spirits began to sink, when I viewed the 
fearful prospect before me, which, if I failed to regain the Ivaffle, 
threatened me with the horrors of a lingering and painful death. 
I examined my saddle-bags, and found that they contained not 
a single article of provision ; my powder-horn had unfortunately 
been left on my camel ; my note-book, however, was luckily in my 
possession, and on looking over it, I found, what was of some im- 
portance to me, that I had marked all the back bearings. I knew, 
that whether I advanced or retraced my steps, I should equally be 
two days distant from a well, and was aware that, even in reaching 
one, I might not have power to get at the water ; my horse, at any 
rate, was not likely to survive two days' privation of it. In this 
extremity, and not knowing what direction to take, I found my 
only resource to preserve life, supposing I obtained water, would be 
to kill my poor animal, and to subsist on his flesh, with the hope of 
being, in the meantime, relieved by some passing traveller : but 
this chance was very remote, the road we were pursuing being but 
little frequented ; and as to any other means of extricating myself, 
I could devise none. After some time passed in reflecting on what 
might probably be my melancholy fate if left on the desert, a 
sudden impulse induced me to trust to the guidance of my horse, 
and, giving him the reins, I allowed him to take what course he 
chose, little imagining how nearly I approached the end of my diffi- 
culties. Whilst proceeding on my way, almost hopeless of extri- 
cating myself, and in a direction quite contrary to that which I had 
fancied to be the right one, I unexpectedly perceived that I had 
crossed the track, and was actually in a Wadey full of talhh trees, 
