side we find a large fort, half sliced away, but still showing
the concrete flooring of a tower. About the centre of the length
are the remnants of a round Burj; blocks of buildings, all
levelled to the foundations, lie to the north-west, and on the
west appear signs of a square. Perhaps the most interesting
discovery is that of catacombs, proving a civilization analogous
to Maghair Shu'ayb, but ruder, because more distant from the
centre. The "caves" are hollowed in a long reef of loose breccia,
which, fronting eastward, forms the right bank of the smaller
branch. They are now almost obliterated by being turned into
sheep-folds; the roofs have fallen in, and only one preserves the
traces of two loculi.

The arrangements touching fuel and water in this great
metal-working establishment are on a large scale. The biggest of
the Afran ("furnaces") lies to the north-west, near the right
bank of the valley: all are of the ordinary type, originally some
five or six feet high, to judge from the bases. They are built of
fire-brick, and of the Hisma stone, which faces itself into a
natural latex. We dug deep into several of them; but so careful
had been the workmen, or perhaps those who afterwards ransacked
these places, that not the smallest tear of metal remained: we
found only ashes, pottery, and scoriae, as usual black and green,
the latter worked sub-aerially; many of them had projections like
stalactite. Round the furnaces are strewed carbonate of lime,
stained black with iron, like that of Sharma; and a quantity of
the chlorite-enamelled serpentine still used in the Brazil as a
flux.

Quartz was absent, and we were at a loss to divine what stone had