amoTig the Arabs of the Great African Desert. 41 
its soil is principally rocky; its distance Scott computes at up- 
wards of 200 miles southward of the place where he was sold 
to Sidi Hartoni, and he supposes it to be about twenty miles 
from the ocean, the roar of which he occasionally heard when 
the wind blew from the west. He also remarked a circum» 
stance which inclined him to think the coast not far distant. 
The water of the wells at the beach was much fresher than that 
of the place of encampment, and the Arabs, who were often 
sent to fetch it from the coast, usually left home in the morn- 
ing, and returned on the evening of the following day. 
In this district Scott saw plenty of wild-fowl, occasionally 
foxes, wolves, deer^ or animals like deer, with a red back, white 
belly, tapering black horns, with prominent rings, and tips 
bent forward, eyes black and large. Some of these animals 
have straight horns : — ^it is called El Mochae 
Scott remained at El Ghiblah for some months, but about 
the month of June (as he supposes, from his recollection of the 
length of the day and the hea^-of the weather,) he was told 
that the tribe would go a long journey to Ilez el Hezsli^ and 
that he must go with them, and there change his religion, or 
die.” 
The old man, his master, his three sons and three daughters, 
with many others of the tribe, composed a caravan of twenty 
families. 
The party mustered between 500 and 600 camels, of which 
fifty-seven were the property of Sidi El Hartoni. Each fa- 
mily was provided with a tent, which, with provisions, water, 
and all their effects, were carried by the male camels, while 
the young camels, and those that gave milk, had no load what^ 
ever. The number of sheep belonging to the caravan was 
above 1000, and their goats were nearly as many. They had 
only five horses, which during the journey were chiefly employ- 
ed in chasing ostriches, the feathers of which were carefully 
* On shewing Scott the plates in Shaw’s Zoology, he immediately pointed to 
the following animals as those which he had met with in the African Desert and 
its confines, while he described the peculiarities of each with considerable accu- 
racy ; Antilope oryx, or Egyptian antelope ; A. gazella, x\. cervicapra, or com- 
mon antelope ; A. euchore, or spring antelope. 
