accomplished our descent, it changed apparently to a soil consisting of burnt stones and gravel, which, on a closer examination, we found to bear a resemblance to charcoal and cinders, as it crumbled in our fingers with the slightest pressure, a circumstance which confirmed our belief in what we had been previously told — that the whole Dasar, now called the Sand Sea, was once one enormous volcano.
Issuing out of the opening, we perceived, on looking back, that the mountain we had just left, together with the adjoining ones, presented the same charred appearance for about seventy or eighty feet above the level on which we stood. All around us now exhibited a barren deserted aspect. No tree was to be seen, but only occasional patches of dried, unhealthy-looking grass, similar to that seen on the Egyptian desert, growing on a similar sandy surface.
Save ourselves, there was not a soul to be seen
