21? 
IF this caravan had not happened to have arrived &o 
fortunately, we should all have perished, as the water 
which was afterwards brought by the Beduins and by 
Salem would have come too late; our breath and vital 
functions had ceased, and I do not think that we could 
have remained two hours longer alive. 
When I consider that so considerable a caravan had, 
upon the false report that two or three thousand were 
going to attack it ( who in fact were only the 400 Ara- 
bians that watched me) quitted the road, and that this 
mistake was the cause of our preservation, I cannot 
sufficiently admire the gracious direction of Providence 
to save us. 
I can now easily conceive how the unfortunate Major 
Houghton may have perished in the desert, in conse- 
quence of a situation like that which I have just descri- 
bed* It is very possible that those who accompanied 
him did not commit any treachery. 
The greatest part of the soil of the desert consists of 
pure clay, except some small traces of a calcareous na- 
ture. The whole surface is covered with a bed of 
chalky calcareous stone of a whitish colour, smooth, 
round, and loose, and of the size of the fist; they are 
almost all of the same dimension, and their surface is 
carious like pieces of old mortar; I look upon this to be 
a true volcanic production. This bed is extended with 
such perfect regularity, that the whole desert is cover* 
ed with it, a circumstance which makes pacing over it 
very fatiguing to the traveller. 
There is no animal of any kind to be seen in this de» 
sert, neither quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, nor insects, nor 
any plant whatsoever, and the traveller who is obliged 
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