We Started Again As Soon As The Camels Returned From The Well, But
Should Probably Have Gone Astray Had Not
The Bedouins above mentioned
pointed out the road we ought to take; for Szaleh, the uncle of Hamd,
although he
Pretended to be quite at home in this district, gave evident
proofs of being but very slightly acquainted with it. We made many
windings between sand-stone rocks, which presented their smooth
perpendicular sides to the road; some of them are of a red, others of a
white colour; the ground was deeply covered with sand. The traces of
torrents were observable on the rocks as high as three and four feet
above the
BOSZEYRA
[p.496] present level of the plain. Our main direction was E.N.E. At
four hours and three quarters from the time we set out in the morning,
we entered Wady Rahab [Arabic], a fine valley with many Syale trees,
where the sands terminate. Route E. At five hours and a half we entered
another valley, broader than the former, where I again found an
alternation of sand-stone and granite. The barrenness of this district
was greater than I had yet witnessed in my travels, excepting perhaps
some parts of the desert El Tyh; the Nubian valleys might be called
pleasure grounds in comparison. Not the smallest green leaf could be
discovered; and the thorny mimosa, which retains its verdure in the
tropical deserts of Nubia, with very little supply of moisture, was here
entirely withered, and so dry that it caught fire from the lighted
cinders which fell from our pipes as we passed.
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