Again we started, a little after midnight, and having passed, early in the morning, with considerable difficulty and long delay, the rugged sandy passage called “Thníye el kebíra,” we halted, after a march of eight hours and a half, having accomplished only a distance of about fifteen miles. I felt greatly exhausted, and I was the more sensible of fatigue, as I had a long march before me, the well being still distant; and after a most toilsome and wearisome stretch of more than eighteen miles, with numerous delays, and several difficult passages over the sandhills, we reached the well “Mésheru,” which is notorious on account of the number of bones of the unfortunate slaves by which it is surrounded. The water of this well, which is five fathoms in depth, is generally considered of good quality, notwithstanding the remnant of human bones which are constantly driven into it by the gale; but at present it was rather dirty. The whole country around presents a very remarkable spectacle, especially the tract closely bordering on the well to the north, and which, in a rather maliciously witty manner, has been called by the Arabs “Dendal Ghaladíma” (“the Promenade of the Minister”). It would form a good study for a painter experienced in water colours, although it would be impossible to express the features in a pencil sketch. But not even here were we enabled to grant ourselves the slightest repose, only staying long enough to take in a sufficient supply of water, and to slaughter one of our camels, which was totally unfit to proceed. Having made this day about eighteen miles, we reached the following day, after a moderate march of from nineteen to twenty miles, the southernmost solitary date-grove of Fezzán. Here we were so fortunate as to meet a small caravan of Tebu, comprising a few very respectable men, who brought us the latest news from Murzuk, where I was glad to hear that Mr. Frederick Warrington, the gentleman who had so kindly escorted me out of Tripoli more than five years previously, was awaiting me, and that the very governor who had been appointed to the government of Fezzán during our first stay there, had a few days before again been reinstalled in that office. [Sidenote: July 6th.]