PATROLLING 291 



wide, alternately dark green and chrome yellow. Here 

 and there a white chalky substance breaks out, and 

 the topmost peak consists of this white stuff crowned 

 with a few huge boulders, round which are scattered 

 a number of large, very hard, yellowish stones. On 

 one spur of the mountain I found four square and 

 well-built pillars of loose stones about four feet high 

 and two square. They appeared the work of a mason, 

 perhaps of a prospector. They certainly are not sign- 

 posts, as the old road ran north of the mountain, hence 

 the reason of my party going astray. 



On my return to my camel I found a man of the 

 lost party had come in. We joined forces under the 

 mountain at nightfall. 



From this spot to Bir el Nakhla the going was 

 indifferent. We had, immediately on starting, to cross 

 a high sand-drift, into which the camels sank almost 

 to their hocks. Then a stone-strewn undulating plain, 

 on which were the tracks of a party who had passed 

 here some years before (Mr. Currie's, the Director of 

 Education), was crossed. The next variation was a 

 watercourse in a valley 1200 yards wide. In the bed, 

 which we followed, were rocks of every possible hue, 

 rich purple predominating. We then came to a large 

 plain, and in the distance, from the top of a hill, we 

 saw the first of the " terabil," which are a feature of 

 this desert. Near the hill was a bright green sort of 

 broom, which is so bitter that not even a starving camel 

 will eat it. 



A few miles further on we came to some isolated 

 sand-drifts. These piles of fine sand, as much as 500 



