the Wady Surr proper, whose influents drain the southern
Khurayatah or Hisma Pass. Here the amount of green surface, and
the number of birds, especially the blue-rock and the
insect-impaling "butcher," whose nests were in the thin forest of
thorn-trees, argue that water is not far off. The Ras Wady Surr
is a charming halting-place.

Our Arabs worked hard to gain another day. The only tolerable
Pass rounding the southern Sharr was, they declared, the Wady
Aujar, an influent of the Wady Zahakan, near Ziba. The Col
el-Kuwayd, now within a few yards of us, is so terrible that the
unfortunate camels would require, before they could attempt it,
at least twenty-four hours of preparatory rest and rich feeding;
and so forth. However, we pushed them on with flouts and jeers,
and we ourselves followed at eleven a.m.

The Pass proved to be one of the easiest. It began with a gradual
rise up a short broad Wady, separating the southernmost
counterforts of the Sharr from the north end of the Jebel
el-Ghurab. This "Raven Mountain" is a line of similar but lower
formation, which virtually prolongs the great "Landmark," down
coast. The bottom was dotted with lumps of pure "Maru," washed
from the upper levels. We reached the summit in forty minutes,
and the seaward slope beyond it was a large outcrop of quartz in
situ, that assumed the strangest appearance,--a dull, dead
chalky-white, looking as if heat-altered or mixed with clay. The
rock-ladder leading to the lower Wady Kuwayd, which has an upper
branch of the same name, offered no difficulty to man or beast;
and the aneroid showed its height to be some 470 feet
(28.13--28.50). The caravan, having preceded us, revenged itself