Having prepared everything in the forenoon, we set out on our lonely and dangerous journey with a fervent prayer, and after a march of a little less than two miles emerged from the valley, or hénderi, through a rocky defile. We then gradually ascended the higher level of the desert plain, and having made a stretch of about sixteen miles, we encamped. Having kept strict watch, as it was not improbable that some people might have followed us, we started again at an early hour, long before the dawn of day, and after a march of about thirteen miles reached Íggeba (Denham’s Ikbar), a shallow depression at the western foot of a mountain, clothed with some herbage and adorned with a rich profusion of dúm-palms. The well here afforded a supply of the most delicious water. However, the locality was too unsafe for our small troop to make here a long stay, it being frequently visited by predatory expeditions. We therefore thought it prudent to start again in the afternoon along the western road, by way of Síggedim, which has been laid down very erroneously by the former expedition, they probably not having taken the accurate distances and directions of this route, as they relied upon the direct track, which they had traced with accuracy. This road is called “Nefása seghíra,” from a defile, or “thníye,” which we crossed about two miles and a half from our starting-point. About ten miles beyond we encamped, and reached the next morning, after a march of ten miles more, over a beautiful gravelly flat, and crossing the track of a small caravan of asses coming from Brábu, the beginning of the oasis of Síggedim, stretching out at the western foot of a considerable mountain group, the direction of which is from east to west, and well wooded with dúm-palms, date trees, and with gerredh, or _Mimosa Nilotica_. The ground, which is richly overgrown with sebót, in several places shows an incrustation of salt. We halted, for the mid-day hours, a little more than a mile further on, near the well, as we could not afford to make any long stay here. The place was at present quite deserted, but I was told that about a month later in the season people occasionally take up their temporary residence here, and a few isolated stone dwellings on a projecting cliff, testified to the occasional presence of settlers.