Having staid here during the forenoon, we started late in the day. My protector remained behind in order to settle some business, while I proceeded in advance with the most trustworthy of his pupils, first keeping close along the river, which here seemed to be of considerable depth quite near the shore, but further on turning away to some distance from it, through the plain, which was here well clad with small talha trees. Thus, after a march of about four miles from our former encampment, we ascended sandy downs, behind which a broad belt of swampy meadow ground stretched along at a distance of more than two miles from the river itself. The higher level soon became more rocky, being strewn with black pebbles, between which numerous footprints of the giraffe were visible. It was pleasantly undulating, a ledge of sandstone and calcareous rock intersecting it like a wall. Having here heard from a shepherd who was watering his flock at a small pond formed by the recent fall of rain, that there was an encampment at some distance, we gave to our course a more southerly direction, and soon reached a village lying at the very brink of the steep bank of the river, consisting of huts, and inhabited conjointly by some Arabs of the tribe of the Bú-ʿAlí, and some poorer members of the tribe of the Kél e’ Súk. The huts consisted of matting, and were very clean and well ventilated, each of them having two doors, one on the north and another on the south side, both of moderate dimensions. It was late in the evening when we arrived here, and there being an entire want of trees, we had great difficulty in obtaining a little firewood; nor was there any good býrgu for the horses, the river, which here divided into two branches, being too deep to allow this rank grass, which prefers the swampy lowlands, to grow to any extent. The poverty of the inhabitants, also, could not at all satisfy the wants of my companions, who were very fond of a good supper; hence El Bakáy himself, who was well aware of this circumstance, had passed this locality, and, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, directed his steps to another encampment further on. This was also the reason of our following day’s march being limited to a few hundred yards. We thus exchanged our encampment at Isábegen for that of El Bakáy’s at Asákan Imbégge; but the change was by no means advantageous to us, as the high level presented here a most dreary aspect, being almost totally destitute of trees or shrubs. The border of the river, however, bore a very different character, and the swampy lowland extended to a great distance, intersected by a dead water which at present had no connection with the river. The profusion of herbage which grew in this locality enabled me to buy here a good supply of butter, although the country in general appeared to be very bleak. A large island, also, is formed in the river, which is inhabited by Songhay, and called Éha. The previous afternoon,