rough-coated, bear-eared hound of the kind described by
Wellsted[EN#63] as "resembling the English mastiff"--he did not
know how common is the beast further north. The Kalb gasur
(jasur) or "bold dog," also called Kalb el-hami, or "the hot"
(tempered), is found even amongst the Bedawin to the east of the
Suez Canal; but there the half-bred is more common than the
whole-blood. It is trained to tend the flocks; it never barks,
nor bites its charges; and it is said to work as well as the
shepherd-dog of Europe.

The Wady Mulaybij shows fine specimens of mica dori in the
quartz-vein streaking the slate: it deceived all the caravan,
save those who tested it with their daggers. The bed, after
forming a basin, narrows to a sandy gut, smooth and pleasant
riding; and, after crossing several valley-heads, the path
debouches upon the Wady Abal-Gezaz. This "Father of Glass,"
though a day and a half's march from the sea, is even broader
than the great Sirr to which it is tributary. Its line, which
reminded us of the Damah, is well marked by unusually fine
vegetation: and the basin bears large clumps of fan-palm,
scattered Daum-trees, the giant asclepiad El-'Ushr,[EN#64]
thickets of tamarisk and scatters of the wild castor-plant, whose
use is unknown to the Arabs. Water wells up abundantly from a
dozen shallow pits, old and new, in the sand of the southern or
left bank. Here the flow is apparently arrested by a tall
buttress of coarse granite, red with orthose, and sliced by a
trap-dyke striking north-south.

Our day's work had been only four slow hours; but we were
compelled to await the caravan, which did not arrive till after