d valley, surrounded
by high mountains and abounding in doum trees, the first we had seen
since we quitted the river. This place is called "El Medina." It
contains an Arab village, whose inhabitants gain something by supplying
the caravans with goats, of which they have many, and by furnishing
them with water, of which they possess several reservoirs filled by the
rains. We reposed for the rest of the night under the doum trees, and
in the morning regaled ourselves with the pure and wholesome water of
El Medina, which was to me particularly grateful after being obliged to
drink, for several days, either the muddy water we had brought from
the river, or that of Apseach, which had become heated by the sun, and
impregnated with a disgusting smell, derived from the new leather of the
water-bags which contained it. I bought here a fat goat and some milk,
which made us a feast, which hunger and several days fasting on bad
bread made delicious.

We stayed here to water and repose the camels till the afternoon of
the second day after our arrival, when we recommenced our march for the
river, whose distance we were told was three days march from El Medina.
During our stay at El Medina, Khalil Aga my companion was taken very ill
with vomiting and purging, occasioned by having drank of the water of
Morat, against which I had remonstrated without effect. He did not get
quit of the consequences of his imprudence for several days.

On the 15th, in the afternoon, we commenced our march for the river. The
desert hereabouts resembles that we passed the two first days after our
quitting the river, being a sandy plain studded with hills and mountains
of granite. We proceeded till about three hours after midnight, when we
lay down to repose till day-break, when we again mounted and continued
our journey till two hours before noon, when we stopped at a rock which
had some holes in it, where we sheltered ourselves from the sun, and
dined with appetite on some coarse durra bread baked upon camel's dung.

By the middle of the afternoon we were again on our way, which led
through the deep and winding valleys of three mountains of calcareous
stone, which indicated the proximity of the river, and over hills of
deep sand, with which the eddies of the wind had in many places filled
those valleys. Since we left Morat till we came to these mountains the
granite hills had become rarer, others of calcareous stone here and
there presented themselves, a