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Tuarick on his Camel, with Male and Female Tibboo.--[p. 134.1

selling them in all the markets. About a mile beyond Bilma was a fine spring, spreading around, and forming a little circle of the richest verdure. This was the last vegetable life that the discoverers were to see during a long march of thirteen days. In these wilds, where the constant drift causes hills to rise or disappear in the course of a night, all traces of a road are soon obliterated, and the eye of the traveller is guided only by dark rocks which at certain intervals raise their heads amid the sterile waste. Sometimes the sand is formed into hills with perpendicular sides, from twenty to sixty feet high. These the camels are made to slide down; in which operation they can only be kept steady by the driver hanging with all his weight on the tail, otherwise they would tumble forward, and throw the load over their heads. "Tremendously dreary are these marches; as far as the eye can reach, billows of sand bound the prospect." Whenever the wind was high, volumes of this substance darkened the air, through which it was sometimes impossible to attempt a passage.

After a fortnight spent in the Desert, the expedition saw symptoms of a return to the region of life. There appeared scattered spots of thin herbage; little valleys watered by springs were filled with the shrub called suag, on which grew delicate berries; small herds of gazelles fed in these retreats; even the droves of hyenas indicated the revival of animal nature. As the travellers advanced, the country improved; at every mile the valleys became more gay and verdant; and the creeping vines of the colocynth in full bloom, with the red flowers of the kossom, converted many of these spots into a little Arcadia. The freshness of the air, with the melody of the hundred songsters that were perched among the creeping plants, whose flowers diffused an aromatic odour, formed the most delightful contrast to the desolate region through which they had passed. Here again were found Tibboos, of the tribe called Gunda, a more alert and active people than the former; the men still uglier, the girls still handsomer and more delicately formed. This sept have about 5000 camels, on whose milk alone they support themselves for half the year, and their horses for the whole year; the little crop of gussub and millet being too precious for these animals, which drink camels' milk, sweet or sour, and by this strange diet are

kept in the highest health and condition. The chief, Mina Tahr, or the Black Bird, waited upon the party, and was presented by Boo Khalloom with a coarse scarlet burnouse and a tawdry silk caftan : these paltry dresses, being the finest that had ever invested the person of this chieftain, threw him into ecstasies of delight, which he continued for hours to testify by joyful shouts and high leaps into the air. Major Denham's watch singularly delighted him; but solely, as soon appeared, from the pleasure of seeing his own person in the bright metallic case; so that a very small mirror was deemed still more precious.

In this approach to the territory of Soudan the English began to witness the exercise of mutual plunder between the caravan and the natives. Every animal which straggled from the main body was instantly carried off; even a dog had been eaten up, and only the bones left. A herald, handsomely equipped, who had been sent forward to the sultan of Bornou, was found stripped, and tied naked to a tree. On the other hand, no sooner did the caravan come in view of any village than the inhabitants were descried on the plain beyond in full flight with all their effects. The Arabs pursued, in indignation only, as they pretended, at not being allowed to purchase what they wanted; but the conduct of the poor natives was evidently the result of long experience; and Major Denham saw executed on one party the most rapid process of plunder he ever witnessed. In a few seconds the camels were eased of their loads, and the poor women and girls stripped to the skin. Boo Khalloom, on this and other occasions, interposed, and insisted on restitution; but whether he would equally have done so without the urgent remonstrances of the English appears to be doubtful.

The expedition, now advancing rapidly, entered Kanem, the most northern province of Bornou, and soon arrived at Lari, a town of two thousand inhabitants, composed of clusters of rush-huts, conical at top, and looking like wellthatched corn-stacks. This place formed a remarkable stage in their progress; for, from the rising ground in front of it was seen stretching out the boundless expanse of the great interior sea of Africa, the lake Tchad, "glowing with the golden rays of the sun." Major Denham, who saw nere the key to his grand scheme of discovery, hastened down to the shores of this mighty water. These were

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