In the morning the bad weather still continued, but the cold was not quite so severe. Tired as we were of our involuntary delay in such a place, we decided upon starting; but it was difficult to get our half- frozen people to go to work. At length we set out, accompanied by an old man whom we hired as guide, on the deep descent into Wadi Rán. The soil was often so slippery that the camels could scarcely keep their feet; and we were heartily glad when, after an hour and a quarter’s descent, we at length reached stony ground, though still on the slope. Here the valley spread out before us to the right and left, with the village Usíne, inhabited by the Merabetín Selahát, situated on the top of a hill, and distinguished for the quality of its dates, which are of a peculiar kind, short and thick with a very broad stone,—while at the foot of the western heights another village was seen, and on the top of them the castle Bústam. Here the great valley is joined by a smaller ravine, called Wadi Nkhal, with a small village of the same name. We crossed two paths leading to Beni Ulíd, passing by Wadi Rán, which went parallel to our course on the right, and where there are two springs and a date-grove, while to the left, we obtained a view of Sedi-ūris, situated on a cone overtowering the northern end of Wadi Kominshát. We then approached closely the steep glen of Wadi Rán, and, after some turnings, crossed the small rivulet which flows through it, and, a little further on, recrossed it. Then, traversing the valley called Wadi Marníyeh, we entered a fine fertile plain surrounded on all sides by heights, among which the Kelúba Naʿame was conspicuous on our right. But the camels found the marly soil, fully saturated as it was with rain, very difficult, especially after we had entered the “Shʿabet sóda.” For this reason, also, we could not think of following the direct path, which leads over the hills. At the western end of the shʿabet are the villages Deb Beni ʿAbas and Suadíyeh, with olive-groves. All the waters of the district are carried into Wadi Rán, which joins the Wadi Haera. The country begins to exhibit decidedly a volcanic character, and from all the heights rise bare basaltic cones, while the lower part is covered with halfa. This character of the country seems to have been well understood by the Arabs, when they gave to these basins, surrounded by basaltic mounts, the name “Shʿabet,” which we have already seen given to the crater of the Tekút. Here, at a short distance on our left, we passed “another Shʿabet,” distinguished as “el Akhera.”