Yesterday I had observed a few footmarks of the giraffe, but to-day they were everywhere visible. They were double, as this animal does not move its feet one after another, like the camel or the horse, but two of its feet together, or simultaneously. We saw the footprints of young as well as old ones. This plateau is the real home of the giraffe. No place could be better adapted for such an unwieldy creature. There is abundance of small tholukh, on which it feeds; all the country is open around to it, and it is out of the reach of ferocious animals. Towards the evening the marks of the giraffe disappeared, and were succeeded by the footprints of what is here called the wild ox (but which Overweg believes to be a large species of gazelle), so that one animal appears to have made room for the other. The day was cool and cloudy. The plain is intersected with shallow beds and streams, and in some places evident marks of an abundance of water in the rainy season. _30th._--We started early for the well, but did not reach it till late in the evening, after a march of nine hours. The well is called Chidugulah, and is situated on the side of a valley of some depth. In the bed of this valley Overweg found some infusoria, clay or stone. Many people started in the night to get water, and give their animals a drink. There is but a small supply, and what there is has a muddy, chocolate colour. The last water we took up from the valleys of Asben had a milky hue, so that when the coffee was made of it, it looked like _café au lait_. Bandits and hostile tribes frequent this well of Chidugulah, and rest hereabouts to pillage caravans. Our people spoke of the Oulimad, and Overweg dreamed he was fighting with them. I dreamed the same night of large turtles, for it had been said they are found in this plateau, and their marks had been traced to-day. I learn now that large turtles, two feet and a-half long, and one foot and a-half broad, are found here. The back shell of one was used for a watering trough by the people we met _en route_. We had sand all day, rising occasionally in considerable mounds. I observed the prevailing winds in the formation of these mounds; for there is always an inclined plane towards the quarter whence the wind blows; whilst to where it blows the mounds are scarped. The winds prevailing now are E.N.E.; and the wind has nearly always come from this direction since our arrival in Aheer. In another season, however, there may be a total change. In full summer it may be south, for what we know. In fact, Amankee says, in summer the wind always comes from the south. At this season the sand is covered with nice herbage in some places, but in the hot weather it must be all dried up. This is, in truth, the spring time in this country; the birds are all laying. There are also young birds fledged. In Haussa there is no word for "fledged."