it trickles. We determined, however, not to stop at this
place, lest the men of Janet[7] might after all arrive; and pushing on,
in hopes that our track might be confounded with those of the caravans,
we reached, after a rapid march of five hours and a-half, the well of
Esalan. As we approached, we saw an encampment in its neighbourhood, and
camels grazing about. Our vanguard halted; and the whole caravan soon
became massed in the entrance of the gorge through which we were about
to issue. Our far-sighted guards, however, soon discovered that there
was no cause for alarm. We had at length overtaken our Tanelkum friends;
and riding forward I greeted them, and, forgetting all idea of danger,
anxiously asked for our baggage, and above all for my inestimable supply
of potted soups!

[7] This name is sometimes written "Janet," sometimes "Ghanet"
by Mr. Richardson, who, moreover, now describes the
inhabitants of the place as Haghar and then as Azgher. A
more definite account is given further on. It appears,
however, that vulgarly in the Sahara all the Tuaricks are
called Haghar or Hagar, which seems to have been used rather
indiscriminately in the caravan as a term of fear.--ED.

In this part of the country the scenery is far more open than it was
before; the mountains are lower, but the wadys are not so wide. Here and
there occurred considerable patches of herbage, called _sabot_, and many
large, fine trees. Amongst the smaller ones, for the first time, we came
upon the senna plant, some of the leaves of which our people plucked.
Higher up, in Aheer, is apparently the native soil of this plant. We had
also again the adwa, several trees, and the kaiou or kremka, the only
plant we have yet seen with a truly tropical aspect.

The adwa bears a fruit something like the date, and is eaten by the
people in Soudan. As to the _sabot_, above mentioned, it is a kind of
herbage, which covers the beds of the valleys in this region of
primitive rock: it forms the principal food of our camels. The _bou
rekabah_, however, the best for them, is in small quantities, but when
seen is devoured to the sand. The people of Aheer eat its seed as
ghaseb.

Yesterday, we saw, for the first time, a bird's nest in the desert, in
the side of a rock. It contained no eggs; our people, on a former
occasion, brought in some. It is astonishing how few birds' nests are
found, though in some places a good number of sma