120 
CHANGE OF COUNTRY. 
though both banks had features common to each other, 
the flooded spaces were much more extensive to our left than 
to our right. 
Westartedon the morning of the 24th, all the lighter from 
having got rid of the skiff, and certainly freer to act in case 
the natives should evince a hostile disposition towards us. 
As we proceeded down the river, the appearances around us 
more and more plainly indicated a change of country. Cy- 
presses were observed in the distance, and the ground on 
which they stood was higher than that near the stream ; as 
if it had again acquired its secondary banks. At length 
these heights approached the river so nearly as to form a 
part of its banks, and to separate one alluvial flat from 
another. Their summits were perfectly level ; their soil 
was a red sandy loam ; and their productions, for the 
most part, salsola; and misembrianthemum. From this it 
would appear that we had passed through a second region, 
that must at some time have been under water, and that still 
retained all the marks of a country partially subject to flood. 
We had, as I have said, passed over this region, and 
were again hemmed in by those sandy and sterile tracts 
upon which the beasts of the field could obtain neither food 
nor water. We overtook the seven deputies some time 
after we started, but soon lost sight of them again, as they 
cut off the sweeps of the river, and shortened their journey 
as much as possible. At 2 p. m. we found them with a 
tribe of their countrymen, about eighty in number. We 
pulled in to the bank and remained with them for a short 
