Their general rate of marching was at from two to two and a half miles an hour. The heat was very great. The doctor's Arab servant, who had gone off to see his family in the neighbourhood, on his return arrived at the encampment after they had started. He, accordingly, set off to overtake the caravan. Though he had a skin of goat's milk, yet it became so hot that he could not drink it; and, as he was obliged to march the whole of the day without water, he suffered greatly and arrived in a very exhausted state. Among the monuments passed was one adorned with rich carving, proving that these regions, now so poor, must have once supported a population sufficiently advanced in taste and feeling to admire works of a refined character. They also found ruins of Christian churches of a later period. They were now travelling through a district known as the Hammada--a high, level, stony region, destitute of wells or pools. Here and there, however, small green patches of herbage were found, affording a welcome meal to the camels. They were accompanied by a little green bird, called the "asfir," which lives entirely upon the caravans as they pass along, by picking off the vermin from the feet of the camels. At a green oasis, El Wueshkeh, where grew a few stunted palm-trees, their camel-drivers killed a number of a venomous lizard, called "bu-keshash." At night a cold wind, accompanied by rain, began to blow; their tent was overturned, and they had much trouble in pitching it again. The next day a number of truffles were found, which afforded them some delicious truffle soup. They met, soon after starting, two caravans--the largest consisting of fifteen camels laden with ivory. With the latter was a woman sitting comfortably in a little cage on the camel's back. Passing through a narrow ravine between gloomy cliffs, they reached a sandy waste, passing across which they at length arrived at some crumbling ruins surrounding a well, where they and their camels could quench their thirst. Though the great watering-place on this desert road, it has not a cheerful aspect; but, as the water is always bubbling up and keeps the same level, the largest caravan might be fully supplied. A day was spent here, as both camels and men required rest. Day after day they travelled on, passing through rocky _wadies_ and narrow defiles, out of the sides of which projected jet-black masses of sandstone, giving a wild air to the desolate region. One day two gazelles were caught, an addition to their bill of fare. At length in the distance appeared a town on the top of a broad, terraced rock. They took long to reach it. It is rarely such a place is seen in that part of the world. The rock rose in the midst of a valley, occupying a position which in days of yore must have made it a place of great importance. It is called Ederi. Amidst the sand-hills which surround it are green fields of wheat and barley, and here and there groves of date-trees.