last longer than had been expected, I ordered fresh supplies from
El-Muwaylah to meet us in the interior via Ziba. A very small boy
acted dromedary-man; and on the next day he reached the fort,
distant some thirty-five and a half direct geographical miles
eastward with a trifling of northing.

We left the Jayb el-Khuraytah on a delicious morning (6.15 a.m.,
February 26th), startling the gazelles and the hares from their
breakfast graze.

The former showed in troops of six; and the latter were still
breeding, as frequent captures of the long-eared young proved.
The track lay down the Wady Dahal and other influents of the
great Wady Sa'luwwah, a main feeder of the Damah. We made a
considerable detour between south-south-east and south-east to
avoid the rocks and stones discharged by the valleys of the
Shafah range on our left. To the right rose the Jibal el-Tihamah,
over whose nearer brown heights appeared the pale blue peaks of
Jebel Sharr and its southern neighbour, Jebel Sa'luwwah.

At nine a.m. we turned abruptly eastward up the Wady
el-Sulaysalah, whose head falls sharply from the Shafah range.
The surface is still Hisma ground, red sand with blocks of ruddy
grit, washed down from the plateau on the left; and, according to
Furayj, it forms the south-western limit of the Harrah. The
valley is honeycombed into man-traps by rats and lizards, causing
many a tumble, and notably developing the mulish instinct. We
then crossed a rough and rocky divide, Arabice a Majra, or, as
the Bedawin here pronounce it, a "Magrah,"[EN#1] which takes its
name from the tormented Ruways ridge on the right. After a hot,