Note (return) — FAS TO TIMBUCTOO,

Some part of this desert is hard, and the camels do not sink deep into it; in others the sand is very loose, which fatigues the camels exceedingly. In travelling, the caravan is directed by the stars at night, and by the sun in the day, and occasionally by the smell of the earth, which they take up in their hands. For the first twenty days after they enter this wilderness they have no water; during this period, the caravan is obliged to carry water in goat-skins 11, as not a drop is to be found by digging. On this account, about a third part of the camels are employed in carrying water, and even with this quantity the camels are often left for three or four days without any. They never use mules in this part of the journey; they neither find the sheh 12, nor the thorny plant so common in the deserts of Africa.