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A DAY IN THE WILDERNESS.

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morning, we soon left the cultivated grounds and entered a dense forest, which at the present season had a very pleasant appearance, all the trees being in blossom and spreading a delightful fragrance around. We were also agreeably surprised when, after proceeding about five miles, we passed two extensive ponds, which supplied us with delicious water. But on our return journey, in August, 1854, the water of these same ponds had acquired such a pernicious character, that it almost poisoned the whole of my troop. A little beyond these ponds we had a considerable rocky declivity, of about one hundred feet, from the top of which we surveyed the extensive forest before us. To our disappointment, we encamped at a very early hour, a little after noon; but a short distance farther on, the danger would have become so imminent that it would have been unwise to pass the night there. Having therefore pitched my tent in the midst of the forest, I indulged with great delight in the pleasure of an open encampment, such as I had not enjoyed since leaving Gáwasú, the dirty huts in which I had lately taken up my quarters having literally turned my stomach. But I had to enjoy this wild encampment rather longer than was pleasant; for we had to remain in it the whole of the following day, in consequence of my friends the A'sbenáwa losing, in the course of the night, one of their camels, which they did not choose to abandon. This involuntary feat of mine procured me a name in the whole neighborhood, so that when I safely returned the following year from my journey to Timbúktu, the people of the neighborhood designated me only as the man who had spent a day in the unsafe wilderness.

But it almost seemed as if we were to stay here a third day; for when we were getting ready our luggage early in the morning of the 12th, a very violent thunder-storm broke out, with torrents of rain, which made our open encampment rather uncomfortable. and did not allow us to start until a late hour. After a march of about four miles through a very dense forest with low ridges on our right, we reached the site of Bírni-n-Débe, a beautiful open spot adorned with a rich abundance of dorówa besides a tolerable number of deléb palms, while beyond the rich mass of vegetation a hilly chain approached from the northeast. Footprints of ele phants were here observed in every direction. The rich character of the country scarcely allows the traveler to suspect that a few miles to the north lies the province of Máuri or A'rewá, which all my authorities represent as a country approaching closely to the nature of the desert.

Having then entered again thick forest, which occasionally became so dense that it scarcely allowed us to pass, and caused repeated delays, we reached, after a march of about nine miles, a large depression or shallow vale coming from the northeast from the province of Máuri, and therefore called Dallul or Ráfi-n-Máuri (the Vale of Máuri), richly clad with a profusion of the most succulent herbage and with numerous deléb palms, besides a few specimens of the dúm palm; and having halted here for a few minutes near a well and the site of a former Púllo settlement of the name of Bána, we crossed the path which leads from Máuri to Yélu, the capital of the province of Déndina. This is the most dangerous part of the whole route, on account of the two provinces, that of Máuri and Déndina, having rebelled, and there being constant intercourse between the enemy in these two quarters along this track, so that our companions were not a little alarmed when fresh footprints of horses were here discovered. However we could move on but slowly on account of the dense thicket, and the anxiety of the people to collect the fruit of the deléb palm, corn being extremely scanty and scarcely to be got in this region. at the time. Here the camel which I had received from Khalilu in a present, and which I had given up to my Méjebrí companion, went raving mad, making the most ludicrous leaps, and kicking in every direction, till it fell to the ground.

At length we emerged from the dense vegetation of the fertile but neglected vale, and ascended higher ground, which separates the dallul Máuri from the dallul Fógha,* and, after a while, obtained a sight of the hilly chain bordering the east side of the latter valley, which runs from N. 20° E. to S. 20° W., being at the broadest part about 1000 yards across. These valleys certainly form a very remarkable feature in this quarter, and, by their shallow character and the total want of a 'current in the water here collected, evidently prove the little inclination which the country has toward the Niger, as well as the limited extent of ground which they drain; and it seems extremely doubtful whether, even after the plentiful rains which occasionally fall in the mountainous country of A'sben, the water-courses of that region have even the slightest connection with these shallow vales which join the Niger.

It was half past four in the afternoon when, greatly fatigued by our long and slow march, we gradually descended the shelving * Dallul Fógha joins the Niger at Bírni-n-Dóle, one day and a half from Gaya.

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SALT-MANUFACTURING HAMLETS.

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ground into the valley of Fógha, the beautifully sloping banks of which are adorned with a profusion of dúm palms, but are entirely wanting in deléb palms. Crossing then the green vale, which was clothed with rank grass, and only presented here and there a broken sheet of water, we reached the first salt-manufacturing hamlet, which is situated on a mound of rubbish of almost regularly quadrangular shape, and of about thirty feet elevation, not únlike the ancient towns of Assyria, while at its foot a shallow, dirty pond of brackish water of almost black color spread out, the whole scenery forming a very remarkable ensemble, of which an attempt has been made to give a fair representation in the plate opposite.

A few cattle were grazing here and there, but they looked very sickly and emaciated, and skeletons of others were lying about in all directions, proving the ravages that disease had made among them; for, besides the fact that general epidemic diseases visit the cattle in these regions as well as in the countries to the south of the equator at certain periods, the conquering tribe settled in this quarter having had to sustain a long siege against the enemy, most of their cattle, being cooped up in the town, had perished for want of pasture. Notwithstanding all these disasters, the inhabitants of Kallíul stood their ground; for the Fúlbe hereabouts are a very warlike race, and are excellent archers. Several of them, attracted by the news of the arrival of a caravan with corn, of which they stood so much in need, rushed past us on horseback as we were looking out for a place where we might take up our quarters with some degree of safety. Leaving two other salt-manufacturing hamlets on our left side equally jutting out into the bottom of the vale, we descended at length from a higher slope crowned by a cluster of well-built but at present deserted huts; and, being informed that the town of Kallíul, or Káura, was still some distance off, and far out of our road, we turned into one of these salt-hamlets, which was the fourth on this side. Here we were quartered in a very excellent hut, but suffered greatly from musquitoes during the following night.

We remained in this poor hamlet the following day, and, being aware of the great distress which prevailed in the whole of this tract of country, I had no more urgent business than to dispatch two of my men early in the morning to our companions the A'sbenáwa, who had encamped on the other side of the valley, in order to endeavor to buy from them as much corn as they were

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