On setting out from this encampment, we kept at first a little more westward, thus leaving the district of Banséna, which formerly seems to have been of some importance, to the north, in order to avoid the encampment of Íso, a brother of Somki, who had sent a messenger the preceding day in order to invite us to pay him a visit. The district through which we passed is called Mínta, and is rich in ironstone, while ruins of former smelting-places are seen in different localities; but it was extremely barren, extensive tracts of bleak native soil, called “néga” or “hamraye,” fatiguing the eye under a hot African sun. Further on the soil became swampy, and bore frequent footprints of the elephant: but after a march of a little more than three miles, while we again returned into a northerly direction, we entered an undulating sandy tract clothed with bushes, and two miles and a half beyond again encamped on the site of a Tawárek ámazágh. Here, after having made some presents, we were well treated, two sheep being slaughtered for us; but we passed a most uncomfortable night on account of the vast number of mosquitoes which infested the place. [Sidenote: Thursday, August 18th.] We at length made a tolerable day’s march in order to reach the small town of Bámbara, which forms the southernmost of the fixed settlements of the Songhay along the creeks and back-waters of the river in this part of the country. The district through which we passed in the beginning of our march formed a tolerable level, thickly overgrown with bushes and the feathery bristle, which gradually attained such a height, as to reach the rider on horseback. At times also the poisonous euphorbia predominated, and after a march of about nine miles our old friend the hájilíj, or _Balanites ægyptiaca_, which I did not remember to have seen since leaving Fógha, began to appear. But far more cheerful than the sight of this tree was the view of a large sheet of water, which appeared on our right about three miles further on, and which excited in me the first idea of the size and richness of the upper course of the Niger; it is here called Dó; but in its further course northwards, where the eye could not reach the border, it bears the particular name of Siléddu, and at least at certain seasons of the year is in direct connection with the river.