The camels never accelerate their pace, which is naturally somewhat tardy. When they are in haste, they thrust forward their necks, the motion of which corresponds with that of their legs. They are led by men on foot, whose labour is so fatiguing, that it is necessary to relieve them every two hours. The ground over which we travelled during the night appeared to me to be even more barren than that which we had passed on the preceding days. For whole hours in succession we did not see a single blade of grass. At eleven in the morning the heat became excessive, and we halted at a place where we found a few little banks of sand. A slave was sent to seek out a few bushes that might afford us shade, but no such thing was to be discovered. The reflection of the rays of the sun on the sand augmented the heat. It was impossible to stand barefoot on the sand without experiencing intolerable pain. The desert is here and there interspersed with a few hills, and we found at very distant intervals a little grass for the camels. We had been the whole of the morning without drink, and as soon as our tents were pitched we slaked our thirst. Our water began to diminish in proportion as our thirst increased, therefore we did not cook any thing for supper, but merely drank a little dokhnou. About eleven at night we broke up our camp and proceeded northward: at seven in the morning we turned N. N. W. At eleven o’clock on the 8th of May, the insupportable heat obliged us to halt on a spot as flat and barren as that at which we had stopped on the preceding day. We pitched our tents, and assembled beneath them. Some drink was distributed to us; and, as we had tasted none since five o’clock on the preceding evening, our thirst was very great. Though the water had received a bad taste from the leathern bag, it was nevertheless exceedingly grateful. I observed some ravens and vultures, the only inhabitants of these deserts. They subsist on the carcases of the camels that die and are left behind on the road. At half past six in the evening, after having refreshed ourselves with a glass of water and dokhnou, we proceeded on our journey. We travelled all night in a northerly direction. The camels, finding no pasture, went on without stopping. About 8 o’clock on the morning of the 9th of May, we halted in a sandy plain, where we found a little grass for our poor camels. There we perceived at a distance the camels of el-Arawan. In the morning, little before sun-rise, the Moors who accompanied me shewed me the spot where Major Laing was murdered. I there observed the site of a camp. I averted my eyes from this scene of horror, and secretly dropped a tear—the only tribute of regret I could render to the ill-fated traveller, to whose memory no monument will ever be reared on the spot where he perished.