Wishek: sand hills or plains, which afford only wild, unproductive, or uncultivated date bushes, are called by this name. All Wishek bear the appearance of having been formerly what are called
Ghrāba, which is a term always used to distinguish parts which produce cultivated or fruit-bearing palms, but having no town near them; the owners of the dates only coming in the season to collect them. Zezeera is a term also used in common with Ghrāba, but I believe only by Fezzanners.
Soobker is the designation of salt-plains, which are marshy in winter, and in summer become broken and rough by the influence of the sun; or of that particular species found in Fezzan, where the salt and earth or sand are so closely combined, as to form a substance resembling stone, and equally hard to cut or break. One of these plains, between Trāghan and Māfen, is about three or four miles in the broadest part, and above twenty-five in length.
Wadey is a term of which I have frequently made use, yet I have given but a slight explanation of. It is a valley in which shrubs grow, or through which the rains form a temporary stream. Near Tripoli the Wadeys are sometimes the courses of impetuous torrents; but in Fezzan, where rain is almost unknown, they are smooth dells, very rarely producing a single plant. A small rift in the mountains, capable of containing only eight or ten camels abreast, is as much a Wadey as a large valley containing a town or towns, and the date trees belonging to such settlements.
Gibel, or Mountain, is a term I need not explain; but merely as showing that it is by no means a matter of course that a Desert must be flat, or nearly so, as even in the kingdom of Fezzan, mountains are very numerous.
Sahāra, therefore, is only applicable to sandy districts, and the Arabs only use the word Berr بار, or country, as a general term. In no part of the Desert, which I have seen, or of which I could obtain accounts, does it appear that water is found on the surface: hence it seems extraordinary, that wild animals should exist; yet antelopes, buffaloes, and some other animals, are, in different places, very numerous. Rats are frequently found to burrow in plains twenty or thirty miles distant from shrubs, and their food is unknown; no birds being found there, and the small lizards and snakes, as well as the few insects, being too active to be caught by them. In some parts, the only living creature seen for many days is a small insect somewhat resembling a spider, called Naga t’Allah نعقاتالله, or the “She camel of God.” Beetles are also seen where Kafflés rest, or in the vicinity of shrubs; and their curious tracks in the sand are so marked, that I have sometimes traced the same insect for a mile or two as I rode along.
Nothing can be more awful than the stillness which prevails, more particularly when the surface is sandy. I have sometimes walked at night from the Kafflé, so as to be beyond the noise made by the camels or horses, and have experienced a sensation I am unable to describe, as I felt the wind blow past me, and heard the sound which my figure caused it to make, by arresting its progress. Near towns, or in places where animals can exist, the slow melancholy cry of the hyæna or jackal is frequently heard during the night, when these animals prowl round the Kafflé.
The appearance of water on the sandy and gravelly deserts is very frequent, and is generally so well defined, that it would be difficult to distinguish it from a river, were it possible that both could be seen at the same time. It is called Shrab شراب by the Arabs, who often amused themselves by calling to us that water was in sight, until we became accustomed to the appearance. Of this curious phenomenon so much has been said by various writers, that any attempt at description on my part would be unnecessary. The looming of objects when the sun is at its greatest strength, is very striking; as from the vapour which rises, they are, at a slight distance, much obscured. I have frequently, in riding along, been delighted at observing in the distance, a tree which appeared sufficiently large to shade me from the sun, and to allow of my reposing under it, until the camels came up; and have often quickened my pace in consequence, until, on a near approach, it has proved to be nothing more than a bush, which did not throw a shade sufficient even to shelter one of my hands. Sand hills deceive still more, always appearing very distant when the sun is on them; and it has often happened, that I have been startled by seeing a man or camel rise close to me, on the top of one of the apparently distant hills. The excessive dryness of the Desert is in some places very extraordinary, particularly to the southward of the Soudah mountains, where, in going to as well as coming from Fezzan, I observed that our clothes, and the tails of our horses, emitted electric sparks.
Water is not to be found by digging in all parts of the Desert; but is more particularly difficult to find in the Sereer, or gravel, which generally lies over sand stone. In two instances I have seen remains of pits which had been dug to one hundred feet without coming to water. The wells which are on the Desert are generally found in Wadeys or in the sandy country; and in all those I have seen, the water was salt and putrid, but the putrescence diminished after a quantity had been drawn. Some wells have only a sufficiency for the supply of five or six horses at once, and are a long time before they again fill. These wells which were so scantily supplied, I observed, were always in a soft clayey rock; but those which kept themselves tolerably full, were in a yellow clay. The depths vary from 6 or 8 feet to 70 or 80.
In almost every part of the stony desert, small piles of stones are frequently discovered, which are erected by travellers as marks to direct them across the country, or in the event of their missing their route, to assist them again to find it. These little heaps are called Aālum علم, or “teachers;” and some become so remarkable, as to acquire other names, and to be favourite resting-places for Kafflés.