Ferguson followed the most minute details upon the
chart traced by Barth himself, and was enabled to
recognize its perfect accuracy.
The city forms an immense triangle marked out upon
a vast plain of white sand, its acute angle directed toward
the north and piercing a corner of the desert. In the environs
there was almost nothing, hardly even a few grasses,
with some dwarf mimosas and stunted bushes.
As for the appearance of Timbuctoo, the reader has but
to imagine a collection of billiard-balls and thimbles--such
is the bird's-eye view! The streets, which are quite narrow,
are lined with houses only one story in height, built
of bricks dried in the sun, and huts of straw and reeds, the
former square, the latter conical. Upon the terraces were
seen some of the male inhabitants, carelessly lounging at
full length in flowing apparel of bright colors, and lance
or musket in hand; but no women were visible at that
hour of the day.
"Yet they are said to be handsome," remarked the
doctor. "You see the three towers of the three mosques
that are the only ones left standing of a great number--
the city has indeed fallen from its ancient splendor! At
the top of the triangle rises the Mosque of Sankore, with its
ranges of galleries resting on arcades of sufficiently pure
design.
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