It would appear that the governor of the town of Aghadez, or rather of
the whole Kailouee race, is not known, there having lately been a
revolution in this Saharan region. All the country is up in arms. We
shall arrive at the interesting crisis of a change of dynasty. The two
Sultans of Aheer known, are our friends En-Noor and Lousou.

_27th._--We rose at daybreak and soon started, ascending from the valley
through a difficult pass to a rocky plateau, over which we pursued our
undeviating track for more than nine hours, and pitched our tents in a
small and nameless wady, covered with a sprinkling of herbage. This was
a trying day for the camels, the ground being rough with loose stones.
How different is all this from European notions of a desert, or level
expanse of sand! With some few exceptions, the Sahara is a region
covered by comparatively low, rocky hills, forming valleys here and
there, supplied with trees, and herbage, and water. We are now in a
really uninhabited spot; scarcely a bird is seen, or a lizard, or a
beetle, or any living thing, save a few flies that still follow the
caravan on unwearied wing, and buzz with moderated ferocity about the
noses of the camels.

What fantastic forms did the rock assume to-day! Now its pinnacles
bristled up like a forest of pines; now there seemed to rise the forms
of castles and houses, and even groups of human beings. All this is
black sandstone--hideously black, unlovely, unsociable, savage-looking.
'Tis a mere wilderness of rock, thrown in heaps about, with valleys, or
trenches, or crevices, through which the caravan slowly winds. This is
our first cloudy day. May we have many such! We feel little of the sun's
power, although there is little or no wind. We must have reached a
considerable elevation.