They tell us, that on leaving Ghât we shall descend to Soudan; yet we can not have reached very high ground. We may soon likewise expect to feel the influence of the Soudan rains, and find the atmosphere much cooler in consequence. How the days are shortening now, and how grateful darkness gradually expands its dominions over this arid, scorching waste, as we move south!
On Friday the 5th we only advanced two hours, to a place called Talazaghee,—a small picturesque wady, where, during the season of rain, there are always two or three pools of good water; there is also now a little herbage for the camels. During our ride we met a small slave caravan, and learned the important intelligence that there are several people of the Sultan En-Noor of Aheer at present at Ghât with slaves. This will be useful to us. I wrote to my wife and others by this opportunity, and trust the missives will reach their destination. The weather is cool and pleasant to-day; and we are led to hope that the great heat of summer is already past. The wind followed exactly behind us as we pursued our south-west course. On arriving we found, rather to our surprise, the pilgrim caravan, and our old friend Abd-el-Kader. They have been some time reposing in Wady Gharby collecting provisions, and, I imagine, passing their leisure hours with the Fezzanee ladies, which they could not very well do in Mourzuk. The morality of these people is easy enough, and no doubt the pilgrimage covers a multitude of sins.
Talazaghee is remarkable for some bas-reliefs cut on the naked sandstone rocks of the wady, in a very peculiar style; the principal tableau, if I may so call it, about four feet by three in size, is a battle between two persons, one having a bird's head, and the other a bullock's, with a bullock between them taking part in the fray. Each person is holding a shield or bow. The sculptures are mere outline, but deeply graved and well shaped. There are several other tableaux, representing animals, but chiefly bullocks. This would seem to intimate, that in the days when these forms of animals were chiselled bullocks were the animals employed for the transport of men and merchandise over the desert. No camels occur, as in other tablets. These sculptures are very properly said by our escort to be neither Arab nor Tuarick, but belong to the people that existed before these races. The principal tableau has a very Egyptian look about it; the oxen are well formed, and would do credit to a modern artist. There is one bas-relief figure of an ox with its neck in a circle, as if representing some of the games of the Circus. The other animals most distinctly seen are ostriches; the rocks around are, besides, covered with Tuarick characters, but nothing interesting.
We started late on the 6th, for the Tuaricks had allowed their camels to stray, and we waited some time for them: however, we were obliged, after all, to start without them, and having made five hours and a half halted. Our course had lain over the plateau, which about half way became broken up into valleys. One of these, called Anan Haghaneen, led us into the pleasant and picturesque wady of Mana Samatanee, where only in this part of the route can be found herbage for camels. There are also a few tholukh-trees. What a desolate region is all this, despite the little spots of vegetation! There are no signs of animal life, except traces of the wadan. For two days, they tell us, we are to have little or no water. Now and then we pass desert mosques,—square, or circular, or cross-shaped walls of stone, some with two entrances, built for the devotion of chance passengers. The mountains on the east are called El Magheelaghen. To-day we carried my trunk with the money. Yusuf had previously given it in charge to a camel-driver, and the Tuaricks were always uneasy, asking to see if all were right. Europeans would probably have done the same under similar circumstances.
On the 7th we made a good day of about eleven hours, continuing during the first three in shallow wadys, down one of which we had a distant view of the plain of Serdalous, on the north-west. Then came the breaking up of the great plateau of Fezzan, and we entered a pass which leads down into the subjacent Sahara, and runs west with an inclination to the south. This is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary natural features I have ever beheld. It seems to have been purposely cut out of the solid rock for the use of man, and reminds one at first of a railway excavation. As we advance it assumes the form of a cave, slightly open at top,—narrow, winding, and furnished with seats on either hand. A dim light comes from above. Only one part was difficult for the boat. Now and then the pass became quite a tunnel, but the concave roof is high enough for any camel to pass. On the sides, here and there, were Tuarick inscriptions; but there was nothing remarkable revealed by this admirable geological section. It was mostly sandstone for the upper strata, with narrow streaks of marl and chalk. Some slate was observed, and frequently our way lay over beds of red clay. An agreeable surprise awaited us occasionally, in the shape of little openings containing groups of the tholukh; but the general aspect of the pass was horrible and desolate, and we eagerly pushed on towards the end. There was nothing, apparently, to support life; but we found and caught a young fox: how the little wretch procured food was a mystery which our guides could not explain. However, life no doubt had its joys for him, and we let him loose in the plain below. I also picked up a dead bird, of a species common in the desert, with white head or cap, and white tail, except the upper feathers; all the rest, legs and bill, black. It is about the size of a lark, but has a head like a blackbird. We supposed the one found had died from want of water, though it may have been killed by the mother of the young fox.
On emerging from the pass at length we found a considerable change of level, and having advanced a little way turned back and obtained a splendid view of the walls of the plateau, which stretched on both sides above the plain, and thrust out lofty bluff promontories, as into the sea. The upper lines of some of them were perfectly straight, as if levelled by artificial means. We came to a solitary rock on the plain, containing excavations that seemed to be the work of men. Here, we were told, Dr. Oudney once stopped and breakfasted.
We have now a pretty correct idea of the great central table-land of Fezzan. It is an elevation, not quite clearly marked to the eye on some of its northern approaches, but dropping sheer to the plain at other parts. Mourzuk is situated in a sandy depression on its surface, which would probably be turned into a salt lake if there were sufficient rain. The limits of the hollow, as of that of many others—Wady Atbah for example—are not noticed by the traveller. Whether he approaches or leaves Mourzuk, he seems still to be traversing a level plain, and only finds his mistake by noticing the change in the nature of the ground, the presence of marshes, of green vegetation, and of a heavy, stifling atmosphere.