Round _Augila_ the country is level and the soil sandy, yet, being well watered, is tolerably fertile. Corn is not cultivated in quantity sufficient for subsistence of the people. The Arabs of _Bengasi_, distant about thirteen days journey, import annually both wheat and barley; and this their corn caravan is generally accompanied by flocks of sheep for sale. The inhabitants of this region can generally speak the _Arabic_ but their vulgar language is a dialect similar to that of Siwah, above noticed. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 2: In hoc supercilio sunt frusta salis, ferè grumi grandes in collibus, et singulorum collium vertices è medio sale ejaculantur aquam dulcem pariter et gelidam. Herodot. ed. Wesseling. p. 181.] [Footnote 3: Ῥέει γὰρ ἐκ Λιβύης ὁ Νεῖλος, καὶ μέσην τάμνων Λιβύην. Herodot. Euterpé, § 33. The Editor rather supposes that Herodotus using the term _Lybia_, comprised all Africa, west of Egypt and Ethiopia; and that the river, or branch of river, alluded to, is the great stream flowing from the west, described by the Nasamones, and supposed to be a part of the Nile, by Etearchus: in such case the traveller may in vain look for its channel in the country suggested by Mr. Horneman, it being undoubtedly far to the south,—the Joliba or Niger.] [Footnote 4: So too Alexander, on his march to the Fane of Ammon, found the water _bitter_: κατήντησεν ἐπὶ ΠΙΚΡΑΝ καλουμένην λίμνην. Did. Sic. Tom. I. p. 198, edit. Wesseling.] [Footnote 5: Vide Note, Appendix, No. I.] [Footnote 6: Vide Appendix, No. IV.] [Footnote 7: Vide Herodot. edit. Wesseling, p. 284.] [Footnote 8: Vide Note, Appendix, No. I.] [Footnote 9: The distance from Biljoradec is not clearly expressed in the original.] [Footnote 10: Herodotus places Augila at _ten_ days journey from the city of the Ammonians. Melpom. 182. N. B. Mr. Horneman was _nine_ days on journey from Augila to Siwah, partly by forced marches.] =CHAPTER II.= * * * * * SECTION I. _Augila, to the Confines of Temissa._ Soon after our arrival at _Augila_, a man was sent off by the chief of the caravan to examine the watering-places as far the borders of the kingdom of FEZZAN. This precaution became necessary from the increased number of people and camels, now forming this great caravan, and the possibility that, from want of rain or other causes, the springs on the usual route might not afford sufficient water for so large a body. The messenger being ordered to use the utmost dispatch, returned on the twelfth day with the happy intelligence, that water was in plenty, and that he met with nothing to impede our journey.