we find the climate much more temperate than in the city. I hope and
pray that I shall be able to bear up against the heat.

What a magnificent sky we had last night!--never did I behold the stars
in greater glory. The Scorpion was brilliant, if not fierce; and the
constellation on his right shone splendidly. At about eight o'clock
Jupiter was setting towards the horizon like a sun!

_29th._--We left Tesaoua at length, at three in the afternoon. The boat
and our servants had gone on before with the Tuaricks, who prefer not
travelling in the dark, if possible. We can often start after them in
this way, and catch them up by pushing on some hours after sunset. Our
course lay south this evening. The heavens, before the rising of the
moon, had a most luminous appearance; Jupiter was seen only about an
hour above the horizon, and the Milky Way was very conspicuous, but at
eight o'clock described only a small segment in the heavens.

We reached Sharaba at eight, and halted. This is a sandy valley, with
herbage for the camels; the water, not very good, is a few feet from the
surface, and issues from some rocks. There are no date-palms about the
well, as reported, but a few stunted ones are found a mile or two higher
up. The surface of the desert is broken into small mounds, crowned with
the ethel-tree.

Sunday, the 30th, was a cool day for the desert, yet sufficiently hot
for me. We left Sharaba at a quarter past six in the morning, and made a
good day of nine hours. These confounded Tuaricks will travel in the
heat, and encamp in the cool. At three in the afternoon, just as the
weather was becoming quite fresh and pleasant, we halted. The wind,
occasionally strong, blew from the north-east, whilst our course lay