uneven passage, until we reached a halting-place called Iskodubuk. The
distance we had made was only about five miles from Bunder Gori, but
the camels were so fatigued by travelling over boulders, that we were
obliged to unload and stop there for the day. The sultan and Abban now
overtook us to say that the rear things were in safe custody in the
fort; and, leaving instructions with the young Prince Abdullah about
the road we should follow on the morrow, returned _nolens volens_ back
to Bunder Gori, saying, as they went away, we might expect them at the
next camping-ground as soon even as we could get there with the
camels. A little after sunset, some interesting rock-pigeons--very
similar to the Indian painted bird, which I found there frequenting
ground much of the same nature--lit at some pools in the bed of the
ravine, and enabled me to shoot and stuff several of them.

19th.--We got under way in the early morning, and commenced ascending
the same ravine, when a messenger from the sultan arrived, and desired
we would stop until he came. We had scarcely accomplished two miles,
and the morning was yet young and cool, and I strove with every effort
in my power to induce the men to go a little further forward, but
without the slightest effect; they were as obstinate as mules, and
just as unruly. This was a fair specimen of Somali travelling; any
pretext to save the trouble of moving is accounted too precious to be
lost. The ground here was a little more wooded; tall slender trees,
with thick green foliage, grew in the bed of the ravine, in which
there were some occasional pools of stagnant rain-water, and the brown
rocky hill-sides were decorated with budding bush acacias, which
afforded a good repast for the weary camels, whose journey over the
boulders must have been very fatiguing to them.

20th.--As the sultan did not arrive, and the young prince would not