The blacks are
very troublesome, and require a good deal of patience. This morning they
would not fetch water from this well, although quite close by the tent.
I was obliged to threaten to leave them before I could get them to move.
They are, probably, a little broken down by the fatigue of the Hamadah.
We passed through Wady El-Hasee on the 24th, and after mid-day began to
ascend, and continued to do so until we pitched tent at half-past four,
at a place called Esfar. This is also a species of plateau, but consists
of sand-hills, sandstone rocks, and shallow valleys filled with herbage
and shrubs. I was glad to get rid of the eternal limestone and have a
change of the sandstone.
On the 25th we started early, and had a cool temperature all day. Our
chaouch went out, and by the assistance of the greyhound bitch brought
in a young gazelle. For about three hours the camels had herbage; but
afterwards came a desert more horrible even than the Hamadah. It
consists of sandstone rocks, and valleys covered with pebbles and loose
blocks. Some of the rocks are perfectly black, and would be considered
by an European geologist, on a distant view, as basalt. Until half-past
four in the afternoon we did not see a blade of grass, a sprig of
vegetation, or living thing of any description; but at the
camping-ground was a thin scattering of herbage, near the foot of the
black mountain called Solaou Marrafa.
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