of rain-water--a small lake, stretching nearly a mile long. The
country, as yesterday, was undulating, and covered with a dwarf forest;
but the trees were thicker, and the ground was covered with dried
herbage, mostly karengia. It is our constant occupation, morning and
evenings, for half an hour, to pick the burs out of our clothes. The
animals seen were mostly small birds; some flights of blackbirds,
two-thirds the size of the English blackbird; and crows and doves in
numbers. Near the water I picked up the feathers of the guinea-fowl, and
the piece of a shell of a large turtle. Burrows of the hyaena and the
ant-eater dotted the ground. En-Noor told me that lions also abound in
the thickets. The lions conceal themselves in the trees, and the hyaenas
burrow under ground.

Our people are now on the threshold of Damerghou, and do not know yet
what route they will take from this country to Kanou; whether by Tesaoua
or Zinder. Even En-Noor seems quite undecided what he shall do.

_5th._--We came well on to-day, eight hours and twenty minutes. After
four or five hours we passed on the roadside a dozen huts, with
skin-roofs or coverings. The people are some light, some dark;
variegated, like most of the Tuaricks. The children of eight or nine
years go quite naked. After two hours more we came upon the large
village of Gumrum, or Gumrek. I saw many people, light and dark; the
women are fat and bold, free in their conversation; and the men
evidently fanatical. The latter shouted that we ought not to pass,
because we were infidels. One fellow was very savage, and cursed me; he
was an old grey-headed gentleman, and seemed quite excited. These people
are also of the tribe of the Tagama. Amankee came up to me, whispering,
"These are like the Kalfadai, they would rob you as they did, only they
are all in the hands of the Sofo (En-Noor)."

The inhabitants of Gumrek have much cattle. We ourselves saw some five
or six hundred head, and they must have more than double this number,
besides flocks and horses. The men mostly ride horses, but their breed
is miserably small and ill-looking. People in poor circumstances mount
bullocks, as do all the women.

To the west, lately, there came off a great razzia. All this country
around, for some hundred miles, is the noted theatre of such
expeditions, which are mostly undertaken against the salt and other
caravans, where there is considerable booty expected. The smaller
caravans escape. When