258 IV e Lose Our Road V l %97 



thoroughbred koheyls, the great people as many as ten of them, besides 

 great multitudes of camels. We are encamped in a pleasing spot, with 

 just enough of the pasture to feed our ten camels. 



" 21st Feb. — To-day has been full of excitement for us. After about 

 four miles from our start we came to the edge of another great de- 

 pression, the nukbe being well marked with stone heaps pointing to a 

 corresponding nukbe beyond, about eight miles off. We went down, 

 therefore, confidently, though the track quickly disappeared. The de- 

 pression was choked with nefuds to our right, but to our left was clear, 

 the loose soil being composed mostly of old shells. Its height above the 

 sea at the lowest point was 100 feet. It soon, however, became plain 

 that we were out of the track, though the westerly direction was good, 

 and we had to cross a sebkha (salt swamp) with a treacherous bottom, 

 and climb a very steep gradient to the nukbe. Osman, nevertheless, 

 maintained that all was right, but soon we found ourselves in a wilder- 

 ness of nefuds. Here Osman's knowledge came to an end, and after 

 floundering over ridge after ridge for some time, he acknowledged that 

 he knew not where he was. We therefore sat down and called a coun- 

 cil, and having watered Yemama from the skins, somewhat solemnly, 

 for we felt that it was the last we could spare her, it was agreed that 

 Suliman and I should go forward alone scouting, either to come across 

 the track or find some height from which we might get sight of a land- 

 mark. It seemed an equal chance to try right or left for the track. 

 At starting we crossed the tracks of a gazelle, an ariel Suliman said, 

 and it seemed to me a good omen. After a while, bearing somewhat to 

 the right, we got out of the nefud, and on to a hard gravel, and I sent 

 Yemama along at a good pace in the direction of some hills to the west 

 north west, saying all the prayers I knew to my saints, Mohammedan 

 and Christian, for a good issue. Nor had I long to wait. At first it 

 seemed a very hopeless quest, with a brown horizon all round me and 

 low brown hills each like the other. But it was nice cantering with the 

 fresh wind in my face, and as I got on to higher ground the view 

 opened and I saw the hill I was following rise higher and higher ap-| 

 parently about five miles off. At a point of the plain where there was 

 a little mound I stopped and looked all round me. Far away to the 

 west there seemed to be a little break in the horizon, and examining 

 through my glasses I felt sure it was a wady, the wady of Sittarah 

 (where the water was said to be which we were looking for). Still it 

 might be a mistake, an effect of mirage, and I galloped back to Suliman, 

 who was following on my dclul, to ask his opinion. We then both 

 agreed that we saw a wady with mounds of tarfa, perhaps palms, and 

 that this was our wady. So I sent him back with the good news and 

 to bring the camels on, and cantered on to the hill to get a better view. 

 From the top of it I saw everything, as I thought, clearly, the tarfa 



