We started late on the 6th, for the Tuaricks had allowed their camels to
stray, and we waited some time for them: however, we were obliged, after
all, to start without them, and having made five hours and a half
halted. Our course had lain over the plateau, which about half way
became broken up into valleys. One of these, called Anan Haghaneen, led
us into the pleasant and picturesque wady of Mana Samatanee, where only
in this part of the route can be found herbage for camels. There are
also a few tholukh-trees. What a desolate region is all this, despite
the little spots of vegetation! There are no signs of animal life,
except traces of the wadan. For two days, they tell us, we are to have
little or no water. Now and then we pass desert mosques,--square, or
circular, or cross-shaped walls of stone, some with two entrances, built
for the devotion of chance passengers. The mountains on the east are
called El Magheelaghen. To-day we carried my trunk with the money. Yusuf
had previously given it in charge to a camel-driver, and the Tuaricks
were always uneasy, asking to see if all were right. Europeans would
probably have done the same under similar circumstances.

On the 7th we made a good day of about eleven hours, continuing during
the first three in shallow wadys, down one of which we had a distant
view of the plain of Serdalous, on the north-west. Then came the
breaking up of the great plateau of Fezzan, and we entered a pass which
leads down into the subjacent Sahara, and runs west with an inclination
to the south. This is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary natural
features I have ever beheld. It seems to have been purposely cut out of
the solid rock for the use of man, and reminds one at first of a railway
excavation. As we advance it assumes the form of a cave, slightly open
at top,--narrow, winding, and furnished with seats on either hand. A dim
light comes from above. Only one part was difficult for the boat. Now
and then the pass became quite a tunnel, but the concave roof is high