CHAPTER XLIV. 
NO WATER LEFT 
AT sunrise of April 27th we did all we could do 
IV to preserve the camels’ strength. We took out 
the hay stuffing of one of the saddles and gave it to 
them ; they devoured it greedily. Then they looked 
about for water; but we could only moisten their lips. 
After the hay they got a sackful of old bread and some 
oil. To relieve their burdens a little we left behind us 
my tent-bed, a carpet, and several other articles of minor 
importance. 
As soon as I had swallowed my tea, I hastened on 
in advance. I was consumed with impatience to get 
on, for the dunes were lower than usual, not more than 
thirty-five feet in height. All the same, I observed that 
the brown substratum, which every now and again peeped 
out from underneath the sand in the hollows between 
the dunes, was slightly uneven in contour; so that the 
lower elevation of the dunes may have been due to 
inequalities in the natural surface of the earth, and 
to the top of the higher parts being less deeply buried 
in sand. Consequently I did not deceive myself. An 
hour later I was again entangled in a maze of lofty sand- 
dunes, quite as difficult to cross and equally boundless 
as heretofore. The larger agglomerations of dunes 
stretched from east to west ; whilst the secondary or 
transverse dunes lay from north to south or from north- 
east to south-west. The steep slopes were now turned 
towards the east and towards the south. But not a siofn 
of life, not a single tamarisk to break the straight 
line of the horizon, nothing to indicate the approximate 
I--35 
545 
