camels, forty-four of which were loaded; seven were dromedaries,
and an equal number carried water. All had assured us that the
rains of the two past years had been wanting: last winter they
were scanty; this cold season they were nil. In truth, the land
was suffering terribly from drought. Our afternoon was hot and
unpleasant: about later March the Hawa el'-Uwwah, a violent
sand-raising norther, sets in and lasts through a fortnight. It
is succeeded, in early April, by the calms of El-Ni'am ("the
Blessings"), which, divided into the Greater and the Less, last
forty days. After that the summer--Jehannum!

From the raised and metalled bank, upon which the Burj stands, we
descended to the broad mouth of the Wijh valley, draining the low
rolling blue-brown line of porphyritic hillocks on the east. To
our right lay the sparkling, glittering white plain and pool,
El-Mellahah, "the salina." After an hour and a quarter of sandy
and dusty ride, we passed through a "gate" formed by the
Hamirat-Wijh, the red range which, backing the gape of the valley
and apparently close behind the town, strikes the eye from the
offing. Here the gypsum, ruddy and mauve, white and black, was
underlaid by granite in rounded masses; and the Secondary
formation is succeeded by the usual red and green traps. Though
this part of our route lies in El-Tihamah, which, in fact, we
shall not leave, we are again threading the Wady Sadr of the
northern Shafah-range. A pleasant surprise was a fine vein of
sugary quartz trending north-south: at that period we little
suspected the sub-range to the south--perhaps also the
northern--of being, in places, one mighty mass of "white stone."

After covering six miles in an hour and three-quarters,