t made of oranges. Afterwards we visited the
Treasurer, who also gave us coffee, and was very civil; and finally
called upon the brother of the Governor of Ghat, who was writing letters
for us to-day.

I feel in better health than when I left Tripoli. Yet we are all a
little nervous about the climate of Mourzuk, which is situated in a
slight depression of the plain, in a place inclined to be marshy. The
Consul has just recovered from a severe illness.

We had been, in all, thirty-nine days from Tripoli, a considerable
portion of which time was spent in travelling. This makes a long
journey; but I am told that our camel-drivers should have brought us by
way of Sebha, and thus effected a saving of three or four days. The
greater portion of our sandy journey was unnecessary, and merely
undertaken that these gentlemen might have an opportunity of visiting
their wives and families.

On a retrospective view of the route from Tripoli to Mourzuk, _via_
Mizdah, I am inclined to divide the country, for convenience sake, into
a series of zones, or regions.

1st zone. This includes the sandy flat of the suburbs of the town of
Tripoli, with the date-palm plantations and the sand-hills contiguous.

2d zone. The mountains, or Tripoline Atlas, embracing the rising ground
with their influence on the northern side, and the olive and fig
plantations, covering the undulating ground on the southern side, where
the Barbary vegetation is seen in all its vigour and variety. This may
also be emphatically called the region of rain.

3d zone. The limestone hills and broad valleys, gradually assuming the
aridity of the Sahara as you proceed southward, between the town of
Kaleebah and Ghareeah; the olive plantations and corn-fields disappear,
entirely in this tract.

4th zone. The Hamadah, an immense desert plateau, separating Tripoli
from Fezzan.

5th zone. The sandy valleys and limestone rocks between El-Hasee and
Es-Shaty, where herbage and trees are found, affording food to numerous
gazelles, hares, and the wadan.

6th. The sand between Shaty and El-Wady, piled in masses, or heaps,
extending in undulating plains, and occasionally opening in small
valleys with herbage and trees.

7th. The sandy valleys of El-Wady, covered with forests of date-palms,
through which peep a number of small villages.

8th. The plateau of Mourzuk, consisting of shallow valleys, ridges of
low sandstone hills, and naked flats, or plains, sometimes of sand,