Shot three Dorcas Gazelles to-day to augment our food supplies; a number of those animals seen.
Each day I note down the few birds which I see, and remain watchful for new species which I may not have already collected in Aïr; but up to now have found nothing of that kind.
13th June.—Leaving Faodet, a broad view of mountain range was sighted soon after daylight to the north and east, and the slopes and outline of the great Tamgak mountains, in the north of Aïr, lay before us, not in appearance of astonishing height (map alt. west side of range 5,569 ft.), but very rugged and of massive solidity, for they are of extensive area. But before the Tamgak range is reached, a very wide valley or flat sandy plain is crossed which lies between the Faodet mountains and Tamgak mountains. At this time we could see in the north a peculiar blunt-pointed isolated tower of rock projecting above the most distant mountains in sight along the Tamgak range, which the guide at once declared denoted the position of Iferouan; and once one has seen this unique rock spire from the south, or anywhere, one could never mistake the locality of Iferouan in the whole of Aïr. (It transpired later that this spire is nearer to Zeloufiet than Iferouan, for we swung out in a north-west direction from the mountains at Zeloufiet, to find Iferouan in a wide fertile valley at a considerable distance from Tamgak.) Thus, in the morning, we sighted a landmark of our destination, which we expected to reach about 4 p.m.
Crossing the flat sandy plain, referred to above, the village of Iberkom was found right in under mountain slopes of Tamgak, in a valley fertile in open bush growth, which was already pleasantly green from the fall of recent rain. There were some date palms at Iberkom and a few stone huts among the bare rocks.
Leaving Iberkom, we followed round the western base of Tamgak range, crossing over one or two bare rocky ridges, but generally following along the narrow level bush-grown sandy valley that circled round the base of the towering grey rocks. We next passed a small village named Tanetmolet, deserted like all others, with a well which contained no water. Altitude, 2,400 ft. Soon afterwards Tintaghoda was passed: a picturesque widely laid out village on a gravel ridge, the stone huts of which were more elaborate than any seen elsewhere, having roof parapets and craftless ornament in some cases, while all buildings were of peculiar colouring, since the stones were laid in a brick-red mortar. (I did not dismount and walk about the empty village, which I much regretted afterwards, when I learned, from the exiled Chief of Iferouan, that this place contains an important mosque. On the other hand I had been told that there was a mosque at Iferouan, and could find no trace of it there, and now know that the Tintaghoda mosque is the one of the territory.) A deep well south of the village held water in plenty, but it was sour and stagnant from lying long unused.
The bush-grown valley narrowed after we had breasted the stony rise of Tintaghoda, then opened out again before Zeloufiet is reached; another village that is first viewed on a bare stony ridge, and of some picturesqueness and variety when entered, except that it is sadly desolate like all the others. There is a fine belt of date palms to the west of the huts, and many old garden-patches which still bear the marks of irrigation, at one time laid out with the purpose of nursing cultivation. At Zeloufiet the great Tamgak mountains have died down, and the wide flat basin, wherein is the village, is surrounded by ranges of low black hills; while the strange rock spire, which we had seen from afar in the morning, lies due east of the village. Between Zeloufiet and Iferouan the shallow, bankless river we have been keeping in touch with in the bush-grown valley along the mountain base broadens out and becomes the extremely wide shallow Igheser river-bed, which on its banks carry some dum palms and date palms, besides some “Abisgee” and acacia bush; while the small villages of Afassat and Tassebet, which each contain some date palms, are passed on the east bank of the river before Iferouan is reached.
Nearing Iferouan, the goumiers were much interested in the tracks of a single camel in the sand of the river-bed. Expert in reading the minutest detail of any individual camel track, they spent some time following the signs, which led toward Iferouan, and conjecturing among themselves over them. They were not very fresh tracks, a week or ten days old, but the natives decided that they were certainly the marks of a camel from the north; no doubt the mount of a scout from some Hogar band of robbers sent to spy out the land: looking at the dates in Iferouan to judge, perhaps, when they would be ripe, so that they might, in season, be plundered or descent be planned upon the people who might be sent from Timia or Agades to gather them—a disaster which actually occurred last year. On the other hand, the outlaw might have gone into Iferouan for water, and thereafter proceeded south to spy about the borders of inhabited districts to seek out the grazing-places of camels, with a view to his band swooping in on them and bearing them off; as so often happens in Aïr in the present day.
It was a weary band of men, and camels, that off-loaded and camped in Iferouan, for we had travelled hard for the last few days over country that held many drawbacks to comfortable travel.
The dwellings of Iferouan are on the west bank of the Igheser river, among, and bordering, an extensive date-palm and dum-palm belt, where many wells are sunk which once served the wants of natives and irrigated the garden patches, that had evidently been cultivated on every available piece of ground within the palm grove. (Later the exiled Chief of Iferouan, by name Obidelkilli, informed me that it was principally wheat which was grown there in the past, a grain which in all probability came into the country from northern Africa.) The huts in the palm grove are of cane framework and grass thatched, and are chiefly in a state of ruin, while outside the grove, on the margin of stony ground to the west, there are both grass huts and stone huts. Also, on an island, quite apart from the village, out in the centre of the wide stream-bed, there is a small house of European aspect, apparently a small post or place of accommodation for resident or visiting French officer at one time.
From Iferouan one views the rugged western slopes of the great Tamgak range out to the northern extreme, and low hills beyond that tail away in the distance—the last of the hills of Aïr, broken hills that appear to grow more diminutive and scattered as they recede beyond the care of the wild mountain ranges of Aïr. . . . I had reached my goal, the north of Aïr, a goal which from the time I left England to this memorable day had never been promised with any measure of certainty; and perhaps I may be forgiven if at this hour I was filled with gladness.