The Soil Is Sand, But Is Fertilized By Being Constantly Refreshed By Little Channels, From Wells Of Brackish Water.

The inhabitants, who are of the tribe Fateima, bear a good character.

The town of Wadan is between twelve and thirteen miles east by north of Hoon. It appeared much inferior to either of the other two in point of neatness, comfort, and convenience; although its aspect is much more pleasing; it is built on a conical hill, on the top of which are some enclosed houses, called the castle. Here is a well of great depth, cut through the solid rock, evidently not the work of the Arabs. The tombs and mosques, both here and at Hoon, were ornamented with numbers of ostrich eggs. The inhabitants of Wadan are sheerefs, who are the pretended descendants of the prophet, and form the bulk of the resident population, and Arabs of the tribe Moajer, who spend the greater part of the year with their flocks in the Syrtis. A few miles eastward of the town, there is a chain of mountains, which, as well as the town itself, derives its name from a species of buffalo called wadan, immense herds of which are found there. The wadan is of the size of an ass, having a very large head and horns, a short reddish hide, and large bunches of hair hanging from each shoulder, to the length of eighteen inches or two feet; they are very fierce. There are two other specimens found here, the bogra el weish, evidently the bekker el wash of Shaw, a red buffalo, slow in its motions, having large horns, and of the size of a cow; and the white buffalo, of a lighter and more active make, very shy and swift, and not easily procured. The wadan seems best to answer to the oryx.

There are great numbers of ostriches in these mountains, by hunting of which, many of the natives subsist. At all the three towns, Sockna, Hoon, and Wadan, it is the practice to keep tame ostriches in a stable, and in two years to take three cullings of the feathers.

Captain Lyon supposes that all the fine white ostrich feathers sent to Europe are from tame birds, the wild ones being in general so ragged and torn, that not above half a dozen perfect ones can be found. The black, being shorter and more flexible, are generally good. All the Arabs agree in stating, that the ostrich does not leave its eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The parent bird forms a rough nest, in which she covers from fourteen to eighteen eggs, and regularly sits on them, in the same manner as the common fowl does on her chickens, the male occasionally relieving the female.[Footnote] It is during the breeding season that the greatest numbers are procured, the Arabs shooting the old ones on their nests.

[Footnote: There is one peculiarity attending the ostrich, which is, that although the female lays from about twenty-five to thirty eggs, yet she only sits upon about fifteen, throwing the remainder outside the nest, where they remain until the young ones are hatched, and these eggs form the first food of the young birds.

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