we came to an acclivity known as El Homda Bir el Abd,
overlooking the extended chain of Jebel el Magara in the distance. This
was followed by a flat piece of ground, upon which little was growing
beyond a number of plants of wormwood (_Artemisia monosperma_), and a
kind of prickly gray-leaved shrub with blue blossoms. Our path then
brought us to a Melleha with a few rushes, where the water was almost
entirely dried up, leaving a bed of salt. A little later we passed
across a plain of an almost uniform level, which appeared bounded to the
right by the high hills in the distance. On the same side is situated
Bir el Mabruka--"Well of the Mabruka," towards which we saw a party of
Bedouins making their way. This plain is succeeded by hilly ground,
distinguished as El Bassoul--"the onions," where white-blossomed broom
with thin leaves is met with, and, in a slight declivity, a few bushes.
From El Bassoul the road descends gently through a sandy tract, from
which to the left we saw the great Lehochomu Melleha, with a mirage
effect of such remarkable vividness as to make us think we had the open
sea before us (see illustration). At this part of our journey we met two
Bedouins, who greeted us with much ceremony. Here too, scattered about,
we found specimens of _Caucalis_. Our course then lay through drearily
uniform sandy ground, of somewhat broken configuration, and covered with
bushy vegetation, where we passed a telegraph post bearing the notice
that it was half-way between Bir el Abd and Bir el Magara. Here we
overtook our camels, which, as usual, had preceded us; but we sent them
on again, as we decided to pause for our midday meal. The wind being in
the south, the air was terribly oppressive, and I felt some apprehension
of the Hampsin. We accordingly pitched our tent in a hollow, overgrown
with rushes, where we were to some extent protected from the scorching
blasts. All our provisions were covered with the fine sand with which
the air was filled. We were passed by two travelling companies of
Bedouins, whom we had already seen on the road taking their scanty meal.
An old woman came up to us to ask for a drop of water. Glad as we should
have been to accommodate the poor creature, we dared not do so, lest we
should have had a visit from the whole troop of Bedouins on the same
errand, when our store would very soon have been exhausted. A youth of
eighteen, to whom we gave a pipeful of tobacco, also begged for a little
water, b