A number of Dorcas Gazelles were seen at Tchefira and a single Dama Gazelle.
29th April.—To-day our direction of travel changed to about due N.E., while we kept chiefly in touch with the Araouat River, sometimes travelling up its heavy sandy bed, sometimes branching off to make a short cut overland when the river took a large circuitous bend. The hills we passed to-day in the stony uneven plains were mostly conical and of blackish lava rock or reddish dust. About 6 miles from Tchefira there is a prominent hill which the Tuaregs call Nafurifanya, and below this hill, on the west side, we found a single native working on a section of ground that contained a salt deposit, which mineral he collected by digging one foot to three feet below the sand surface. At the end of our journey, after travelling a considerable distance over gravel-covered country, we intersected a narrow river-bed, named Arra (not on map), where we camped for the day, in view of Baguezan, lying north, and Aouderas, north-west: both very large mountains, of which Aouderas appears the lesser in extent but the greater in height. Many of the lower hills between Baguezan and Aouderas are of striking shapes; two noteworthy with tower-like peaks, and the others strangely cone-shaped.
Altitude at camp, 3,000 ft.
30th April.—Travelled onward in the early morning, and camped two to three miles north-west of Teouar (a deserted village of stone-built huts), close in under Baguezan foothills, at a place selected by Minerou as a suitable camping-ground from which to hunt among the hills for mountain sheep. We were still in the district known to the natives as Arra, so named apparently on account of the river course that has its source in the mountain of that name, which is the most northern of a group of three prominent elevations that lie immediately to the west of this camp, named respectively, from south to north, Tchebishrie, Aouderas, and Arra.
When camp was selected, brackish water was obtained from the Arra river by digging in the sandy bottom, but there was no rich vegetation on the banks.
Thus far, north of Agades, good water had been found at Azzal and Solom Solom in wells, and at Arrajubjub by excavation. No water was drawn at Tchefira, except for the camels, as it was brine-tasted and not good, and there was no water at our first camp on the Arra river on 29th April.
Altitude at camp, 3,300 ft.
About 3 p.m. I set out with Minerou to tramp to the mountains to search for sheep, and had my first experience of the nature of the hunting that lay before me in looking for those animals. The ruggedness of the country was astonishing. To begin with, the apparently flat stony land that lay between camp and the hills was, on closer acquaintance, found to be thickly seared with deep ravines, and although Minerou, who knew the country like a book, led me by the easiest route, our path was constantly barred by those strange deep channels, down which we scrambled, over rocks and stones, to afterwards ascend with no little effort to the opposite side. The nearer we drew to the hills, the rougher became the nature of the country, and our outward journey culminated at the base of Arra in one long scramble among huge boulders and loose stones, where foothold had to be picked out at each step as we hurried on, for Minerou, born mountaineer and barefooted (for he had removed his sandals the better to grip foothold as he stepped or jumped from rock to rock), was covering the ground at a great pace. We had planned, in setting out, that we would not have sufficient daylight to climb the mountain, and would skirt a part of the base in the hope that at dusk we might chance upon sheep descending from the mountain tops (where they remain all day) to feed on the sparse vegetation in the ravines. However, our search went unrewarded, although I had the pleasure of actually seeing one animal perched away up on the mountain-side at a great height.
During the outing I saw some birds of great interest, and I particularly made note of three species which I had not observed further south, and which, later, proved to be the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia targia), the beautiful Sandgrouse (Pterocles lichtensteinii targins), and a small sombre wheatear-like bird (Ceromela melanura airensis) of blackish-brown colour of striking similarity to the rocks and stones on which they perch.
1st May.—Away before daylight to hunt in earnest for wild sheep. To-day we did not go to the mountains lying N.W., but made for some lower more isolated hills in the north, the principal one of which the Tuaregs call Tuckazanza. The chief of Baguezan and one of his men accompanied me. Travelling was as hard as that experienced yesterday, over rough mountain sides and valleys of rocks and boulders and stones, while in some cases whole hills were composed of huge boulders, individually many tons in weight, which could only be negotiated by reckless bounding and leaping and scrambling, while deep ugly chasms held open mouth to receive you should you slip. I have hunted in many strange places, but never in such wild mountainous country as this; I feel I cannot compare it with anything at home: the nearest to it in ruggedness that I know is where one may hunt for sea otters along the cliff-shores of the storm-torn coasts of the Orkney Islands.