The dawn soon lighted up the waste, and enabled us to see that it was a level plain of hard red earth, scattered over with pebbles and loose pieces of limestone mixed with flint.
The Hamadah was very cold in the night, the wind being from the north. Dr. Overweg does not think that the plateau is more than fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea; but it may be two thousand, and a little more in some places. By day it is hot enough; and as there is little to be observed on these vast, elevated stretches of stony desert, I thought it best to continue my original plan for three whole nights.
To spare one's self is the great secret of Saharan travelling; and there is, after all, not much to observe in this desolate region.
I should mention, that the second night Ali came up in a penitent state along with a khafilah from Ghareeah, and so our poor black women had an opportunity of getting a lift on the spare camels. We could, therefore, go on until morning without fear of losing any of our party in the night. The position of a person who falls behind a caravan in the desert very much resembles that of a man overboard. This khafilah preceded us to Shaty.
After the third night I found the weather so cool and temperate, that I continued on the whole of the day; and the Germans joining me in the evening, we did not again separate. It was towards the close of the third night that we were assailed by an awful tempest of wind, rain, and lightning, which flashed upon us occasionally through the thick darkness. The Germans, who were encamped, had their tents carried away, whilst we who were in motion found ourselves compelled to stop and crouch under the bellies of our camels until the morning broke, and the hurricane had spent its force. The cold was intense, and our people complained bitterly. More than once, indeed, the thermometer was down to freezing-point whilst we were traversing the plateau; and one morning the desert was covered with a shining frost.
Although we became accustomed to the desolate appearance of this district by degrees, we counted eagerly the days and hours that brought us nearer the confines of Fezzan. Every night's incidents were the same. On we went, nodding drowsily on our camels, sometimes dropping off into a sound sleep, variegated by a snatch of pleasant dreams. But these indulgences are dangerous. I was more than once on the point of falling off. By day, few objects of interest presented themselves: linnets and finches fluttered here and there upon the rare bushes, whilst swallows joined the caravan, and skimmed round and round for hours among the camels, almost brushing the faces of the drivers. Lizards glanced and snakes writhed across the path. We started three wadan or mouflon, churlish animals, fond of such solitudes. As to the birds, our people say they do not drink in winter, and in summer leave the Hamadah altogether. Four-fifths of the surface were utterly barren. Little mounds marked the graves of children, slaves who had perished on the way from inner Africa. The mirage was common, but rarely pretty. Sometimes ridges of low mountains seemed raised on the level plain, probably reflected from the cliffs that edge the plateau. The scattered herbage also assumed regular forms—squares, ovals, circles. Now and then it seemed as if vast ruins were ahead, but as we drew nigh these dwindled into little desert-mosques, formed of half-circles of stones, now turned to the east, now to the west. Here the faithful who may be obliged to traverse these dreary regions stop to offer up their simple prayer to the Almighty Allah, to whom, they say, the dreadful Hamadah belongs.
The extent of this plateau from north to south, varying in our route from S.E. to S.W., is about 156 miles, or six long and seven short days' journey. Sometimes our camels went at the pace of three miles, but nearly always of two and a-half miles in the hour. It is almost impossible to make the traverse in less than fifty-six or sixty hours. The camels may continue on night and day, but it will always require so much time to make the weary journey, which is considered the greatest exploit of Saharan travelling in this portion of Northern Africa.
On the road to Tuat from Algeria, or to Ghadamez from Tunis and Tripoli, or to Fezzan from Bonjem or Benioleed, there is no traverse of six days comparable in difficulty to that which we have just accomplished. There is said to be none other like it on the road to Soudan, except a tremendous desert between Ghât and Aheer. However, we must not trouble ourselves about this as yet.
As for the Hamadah, we know that near Sokna the plateau breaks up and forms what are called the Jebel-es-Soudy, or Black Mountains, a most picturesque group of cliffs; and again on the route to Egypt from Mourzuk, six days' journey south-east from Sokna, it also breaks into huge cliffs, and bears the name of El-Harouj. These mountain buttresses are either the bounds of the Hamadah, or masses of rock where it breaks into hills, forming ravines or valleys. But, in fact, how far the Hamadah extends between Ghadamez on the west and Augila on the east is not yet properly ascertained. It seems to be like a broad belt intercepting the progress of commerce, civilisation, and conquest, from the shores of the Mediterranean to Central Africa. The kingdom of Fezzan, however, advances like a promontory beyond it; and then on every side stretches the desert ocean with its innumerable oases or islands, which, from being once mere fluctuating names, as it were, on a guess map, are now by degrees dropping one by one into their right places.
On the breaking-up of the plateau we observed its geological structure to consist of three principal strata: first, a covering or upper crust, limestone with flints and red earth; then masses of marl; and then sandstone, lumps and masses of which were blackened by the contact of the air with the iron they contain. Under the sandstone was likewise a bed of yellow clay, with a mixture of gypsum.