subtended by the stony divide last crossed. At the city the lay
of the valley is from north-east to south-west, and the altitude
is about seventeen hundred feet (aner. 28.28). The head still
shows the castellations of the Hisma. Looking down-stream, beyond
the tree-dotted bed and the low dark hills that divide this basin
from the adjoining Wady to the south, we see the tall grey tops
of the Jebel Ziglab (Zijlab) and of the Shahba-Gamirah--the
"ashen-coloured (Peak) of Gamirah"--the latter being the name of
a valley. Both look white by the side of the dark red and green
rocks; and we shall presently find that they mark the granite
region lying south and seaward of the great trap formations. We
were not sorry to see it again--our eyes were weary of the gloomy
plutonic curtains on either side.

At Shuwak we allowed the camels a day of rest, whilst we planned
and sketched, dug into, and described the ruins. A difficulty
about drinking-water somewhat delayed us. The modern wells, like
those of the Hauran, are rudely revetted pits in a bald and shiny
bit of clay-plain below the principal block of ruins: only one in
the dozen holds water, and that has been made Wahsh ("foul") by
the torrent sweeping into it heaps of the refuse and manure
strewed around. The lower folds of the Sani' block also supply
rain-pools; but here, again, the Arabs and their camels had left
their marks. The only drinkable water lies a very long mile down
the southern (left) bank, above the old aqueduct, in a deep and
narrow gorge of trap. The perennial spring, still trickling down
the rocks, was dammed across, as remnants of cement show us, in
more places than one. There are also signs of cut basins, which
the barrages above and below once divided into a series of tanks.
Up the rough steps of the bed the camel-men drove their beasts;