From a fine pass between two of the hills, the view from above had something of the grand. A rocky and sandy space, about two hundred yards broad, bounded on each side by a high rugged black hill, below a fine level plain, with low hills in the distance. The descent of the camels fine, and accomplished without an accident. [Illustration: _a_ sandstone. _b_ red and yellow iron ore, in very thick beds. _c_ sandstone. _d_ white shistus. _e_ white sandstone.] The surface of the plain has strata of a slatiform blue stone; frequently, however, massive, and so hard as not to be scratched by iron; imbedded in it is a large quantity of periform iron ore. After traversing this plain, we ascended a low hilly range, and passed across its stony surface. From here we saw El-Wahr, or Difficult: it is between two high hills. We passed many skeletons, both of human beings and camels, which always kept us in mind of the dangers we were exposed to.—W. O.] [Footnote 11: El-Wahr. The surface sandy till we approached the hills, then it changed to stony. The black hills with cones, peaks, and a columnar-looking cap, reminded us of what we had seen before. The gloom of these places in the dusk has something grand and awful. We winded up, with the light of a moon not a quarter old, and that lessened by a cloudy sky. Some sandy and pebbly beds, as of a stream, and in one place high clayey banks, with iron ore underneath. Skeletons lay about, mangled in a shocking manner; here a leg, there an arm, fixed with their ligaments, at considerable distances from the trunk. What could have done this? Man forced by hunger, or the camels? The latter are very fond of chewing dried bones, but whether they ever do so to those with dried flesh on them, I cannot say.—W. O.] [Footnote 12: Several of our camels are drunk to-day: their eyes are heavy, and want animation; gait staggering, and every now and then, falling as a man in a state of intoxication. It arose from eating dates after drinking water; these probably pass into the spirituous fermentation in the stomach.—W. O.] [Footnote 13: Our road by the side of detached hills, and several small chains, having rocky and sandy windings among them. The detached hills were mostly conical, with fine columnar tops, as if capped with basalt,—all, however, was of sandstone. The sombre appearance and solitariness of the situations, the form of the hills, and the dreariness of nature around, gave a gloomy cast to every object, which the beauty and life of a large kafila could not eradicate.—W. O.] [Footnote 14: The Tibboos were positive as to this distance, which we could scarcely credit; they must mean, however, Tuarick days, or a _maherhy_, equal to forty miles at least.]