Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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After Being Crammed As It Were By The Hospitality Of This
Marabout, They Left Traghan For Maefen, An Assemblage Of Date Huts,
With But One House.
The road to this place lies over a mixture of
sand and salt, having a curious and uncommon appearance.
The path, by
which all the animals move for some miles, is a narrow space, or
strip, worn smooth, bearing a resemblance both in appearance and
hardness to ice.
Quitting Maefen, they quickly entered on a desert plain, and after a
dreary fourteen hours march for camels, they arrived at Mestoota, a
maten or resting place, where the camels found some little grazing,
from a plant called ahgul. Starting at sunrise, they had another
fatiguing day, over the same kind of desert, without seeing one
living thing that did not belong to the kafila, not a bird, nor even
an insect; the sand is beautifully fine, round, and red. It is
difficult to give the most distant idea of the stillness and beauty
of a night scene, on a desert of this description. The distance
between the resting places is not sufficiently great, for the dread
of want of water to be alarmingly felt, and the track, though a sandy
one, is well known to the guides. The burning heat of the day is
succeeded by cool and refreshing breezes, and the sky ever illumined
by large and brilliant stars, or an unclouded moon. By removing the
loose and pearl-like sand, to the depth of a few inches, the effects
of the sunbeams of the day are not perceptible, and a most soft and
refreshing couch is easily formed.
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