At five o’clock in the afternoon the heights on our left rose to a greater elevation, as much as 1000 feet, bristling with cones, and formed more picturesque masses. Resting on the spurs of the mountain- range was a peculiar knot of cliffs, ridges of rocks, and isolated perpendicular pillars, through which our road led with a gradual ascent till we reached the highest ground, and then descended into a shallow valley furnished with a tolerable supply of herbage and a few talha- trees, some of which, with their young leaves, soon attracted the attention of the famished camels. The poor animals were left grazing all night, which recruited their strength a little. These long stretches were fatiguing both for man and beast; and they were the more trying for the traveller, as, instead of approaching by them in long strides the wished-for regions to the south, there was scarcely any advance at all in that direction, the whole route leading to the west. [Sidenote: Thursday, August 8th.] After a mile and a half’s march the country became more open and free, and those ridges of granite rock which had been characteristic of the region just passed over ceased; but ahead of us considerable mountain- masses were seen, the whole mountainous district, in which the long range called Isétteti is conspicuous, being named Ánahef. After a march of about ten miles, a path branched off from our road towards the west, leading to a more favoured place, called Tádent[87], where the moisture collected by the mountain-masses around seems to produce a richer vegetation, so that it is the constant residence of some Azkár families; it is distant from this place about sixteen miles. Here some advanced heights approach the path, and more talha-trees appear; and further on the bottom of the fiumara was richly overgrown with bú rékkebah (_Avena Forskalii_), grass very much liked by the camels, and which we had not observed before on our route. The country ahead of us formed a sort of defile, into which I thought we should soon enter, when suddenly, behind the spur of a ridge projecting into the plain on our left, we changed our direction, and entering a wide valley inclosed by two picturesque ranges of rocks, we there encamped.