The whole day was employed in watering the camels, who seemed as if they would never be satisfied, and quarrelled for the last drop in the trough. I was forced to remain in the sun, for the Moors were so busy with their camels, that they never thought of pitching a tent. The east wind, which blew violently, rendered the day very unpleasant, particularly by the clouds of dust which it threw over us. As water was now abundant, we had a little rice cooked, which we ate with butter; it was the first meal we had taken since the evening of the 19th. On the 27th, many of our companions went to Toudeyni, which, as far as I could learn from our travellers, is a little less than half a day’s journey to the west of the wells of Telig. From this little town is procured the salt which is brought from Timbuctoo to Jenné, and thence dispersed through all the Soudan. The salt mines, as I was informed, are three feet and a half or four feet below the surface of the ground; the salt is in thick strata, and is brought out in blocks, after which it is split into cakes of the size I have already described. These mines are the wealth of the country; they are worked by negro slaves, superintended by Moors, who live entirely upon rice and millet, brought from Timbuctoo, and cooked with camels’ flesh dried in the sun. The water which they drink filters through the salt, and is extremely brackish; to render it more palatable they put dokhnou and honey into it; and they also improve this detestable beverage by mixing with it a sort of cheese reduced to powder, which I have mentioned above, and which is nothing but curd dried in the sun. On the 27th, about three in the evening, after having filled our skins with water, we broke up our camp, and journeyed to the N. W. hoping we might meet with some vegetation for the poor camels, which wanted food the more, for having quenched their thirst. About five in the afternoon, we halted on a tract of loose sand, of a grey colour, where we found a few scattered patches of grass, which the camels devoured with eagerness, harsh as it was, as they had not eaten scarcely any thing for a week.