The undulating fairly level type of country was of the type favoured by Dorcas Gazelles, and a number of them were seen to-day, and an animal shot for food.
I am now living principally on buck-meat and dried dates bought in Timia, for my European stores, which I have had to draw on heavily ever since leaving the inhabited regions of Damergou, are almost finished. The articles I miss most of all, and which ran out about a month ago, are sugar and tobacco; especially the latter, which can be a wonderful solace when the palate grows listless on a constant diet of freshly killed meat.
Resuming the journey on the following day, we changed our course westward and then southward, to swing round the north-west spur of the Aguellal range, over very rough foothills, through which an old mountain track led us in toward Aguellal village, which lay hidden round the corner of the spur, until we came suddenly in sight of it at close range.
We camped in Aguellal two hours after setting out. Aguellal village (altitude, 2,100 ft.) is beneath the western slope of the strange dark mountains of the same name—magnificent ranges in rugged contour, and of considerable height— while westward from the deserted village, or rather, villages, for there are four separate groups of dwellings in different localities, stretches a wide sandy valley, with green banks of low bush comprised chiefly of “Abisgee” and acacia. There are no date palms at Aguellal and no old signs of grain cultivation; indeed, I doubt if the barren stony ground would permit of cultivation. So that natives in the past apparently gave their attention entirely to maintaining herds of goats and camels, though, in general, Aguellal mountain has little attractive fertility round its base, and is surrounded by country of more barren appearance than the more central ranges,[10] which have a certain fertility in some of the valleys in their immediate surroundings.
The deserted huts in the villages are stone-built and of reddish colour, and many contained relics of native furniture and utensils, such as wooden stools, mortar bowls, grass mats, grass-made baskets and dishes, and earthenware water-jars. In a number of dwellings jars were found built into the inside walls, and the goumiers informed me that those were customarily used by natives as hiding-places for money.
There is a deep well at Aguellal in the centre of the principal village.
Accompanied by Atagoom and Saidi, I left camp not long after midday, and proceeded to climb into Aguellal mountains, an undertaking which proved to be a strenuous one, and we did not get back to camp until after dark. Mountain climbing in intense heat is not mountain climbing under ideal conditions, and we put in an afternoon of extreme exertion, for Aguellal slopes are very steep, almost cliff-like in their upper reaches, and of a rugged composition which rendered them quite impassable in places. We succeeded, before receding daylight warned us to begin descent, in climbing to a summit which registered 3,100 ft., 1,000 ft. above Aguellal village, which is a very considerable distance away from the actual mountain base. Other peaks were, at that altitude, above us north and south-west, which appeared almost inaccessible without the aid of ropes, and I judged they might have additional height of 600 to 800 ft. (On one map which I possess there is an altitude reading on the east side of the range of 3,609 ft.)
Fresh tracks of wild sheep were numerous in the mountain.
17th June.—Left Aguellal at daybreak, travelling first south-west to avoid the southern spur of Aguellal, and thereafter swinging round into the south-east with the intention of cutting in to the broad Agoras valley, and thence continuing up the river course to Assodé. The journey to-day was the hardest performed since leaving Timia, being throughout over rocky, irregular lowland, which offered bad foothold for the camels and entailed much variance of direction to avoid impassable rocks and gully channels. Throughout the day there were many individual hills in the landscape. About mid-journey a long time was spent in making our way through the strange pass that is between the large detached hills of Matalgha and Marasset—a much greater time and distance than the map would lead one to expect.
Marasset is prominent, and can be identified a long way off. It has one peak in particular, which rises high above all else and terminates in twin cone-shaped towers.