that we had yet seen. The descent of the Wady el-Kurr seemed to
be as flat, stale, and profitless as possible, when "Mara"
appeared on the left side in mounds, veins, and strews. Presently
we turned south, and passed the brackish well, El-Hufayrah ("the
Little Pit"), in a bay of the left bank, distant about eight
miles from our last camp. Here the whole Wady, some two miles
broad, was barred with quartz, in gravel of the same rock, and in
veins which, protruding from the dark schist, suggested that it
underlies the whole surface. Nothing more remarkable than the
variety of forms and tints mingling in the mighty mass--the
amorphous, the crystallized, the hyaline, the burnt; here mottled
and banded, there plain red and pink, green and brown, slaty and
chocolate, purple, kaolin-white; and, rarest of all,
honeycomb-yellow. The richest part was at the Majra el-Kabsh
("Divide of the Ram"), where we alighted and secured specimens.

From this point the Wady el-Kurr flows down the right side of its
valley, and disappears to the west; while the far side of the
Majra shows the Wady Gamirah (Kamirah), another influent of the
Wady el-Miyah. Various minor divides led to the Wady el-Laylah,
where ruins were spoken of by our confidant, 'Audah, although his
information was discredited by the Shaykhs. Quartz-hills now
appeared on either side, creamy-coated cones, each capped by its
own sparkle whose brilliancy was set off by the gloomy traps
which they sheeted and topped. In some places the material may
have been the usual hard, white, heat-altered clay; but the
valley-sole showed only the purest "Maru." The height of several
hills was nearly double that of the northern Jebel el-Abyaz; and
the reef-crests were apparently unworked.