exists in the heights behind it. The Wady now flares out; we have
done with the Tihamah Mountains, and we are again in maritime
South Midian.

Although we were standing some four hundred feet above the
wassersspiegel, there was no view of the sea, and we had to cross
a wave of ground before we pulled off our hats to Father Neptune,
as he lay smiling in front of us. There was nothing monotonous in
the scene. The mirage raised high in air the yellow mound of Ras
Kurkumah ("Turmeric Head"), which bounded the water-line to the
south. Nearer, but still far to the left, ran the high right bank
of the Wady Hamz, sweeping with a great curve from north-east to
west, till it stood athwart our path. Knobby hills were scattered
over the plain; and on our right rose El-Juwayy, a black mound
with white-sided and scarred head, whose peculiar shape, a crest
upon a slope, showed us once more the familiar Secondary
formation of North-Western Arabia. Thus the gypsum has been
traced from the Sinaitic shore as far south as the Wady Hamz.

We rode sharply forwards, impatient to see the classical ruins,
leaving the caravan to follow us. The Girdi ("sand-rat") had
ceased to burrow the banks; but the jerboa had made regular
rabbit-warrens. At half-past seven we crossed a winding and
broad-spreading track, the upper Hajj-road, by which the Egyptian
Mahmal passes when returning from El-Medi'nah via the Wady Hamz.
A few yards further on showed us a similar line, the route taken
by the caravan when going to Meccah via Yambu', now distant five
marches. The two meet at the Wady Wafdiyyah, to the north-east of
the Aba'l-Maru range, which we shall visit to-morrow.