influents by the dozen, falls into the Salbah (Thalbah) of Sharm
Dumaghah. The Sirr, though still far from its mouth, is at least
three miles broad; and the guides speak of it as the Asl
el-Balawiyyah, or "Old Home of the Baliyy." The view from its bed
is varied and extensive. Behind us lies the Tihamat-Balawiyyah,
the equivalent of the Ghats of North Midian, from the Zahd to the
Sharr. The items are the little Jebel 'Antar, which, peeping over
the Fiumara's high left bank, is continued south by the lower
Libn. The latter attaches to the higher Libn, whose triad of
peaks, the central and highest built of three distinct
castellations, flush and blush with a delicate pink-white cheek
as it receives the hot caresses of the sun. We are now haunted by
the Libn, which, like its big brother the Sharr, seems everywhere
to accompany us.

Beyond the neutral ground, over which we are travelling, appear
in front the pale-blue heights bordering the Wady Nejd to the
north-west, and apparently connected with the Jebelayn el-Jayy in
the far north (30 mag.). To the north-east the view is closed by
the lumpy Jebel el-Kurr (the Qorh of Arabian geographers?);
followed southwards by the peaked wall of the Jebel el-Ward, and
by El-Safhah with its "Pins." For the last eighteen miles we had
seen no quartz, which, however, might have veined the
underground-rock. The sole of the Sirr now appeared spread with
snow, streaked and patched with thin white paint; the stones were
mostly water-rolled, the discharge of valleys draining from afar.
The ground was unpleasantly pitted and holed; the camels were
weak with semi-starvation and the depressing south-wester;
Lieutenant Amir put his dromedary to speed, resulting in a
nose-flattening fall; and the Sayyid nearly followed suit.