SANDY PLAINS 303 



entered it from the north. The ground was rather 

 broken, and over sandy clay. Once out of it the 

 country, as far as the eye could reach, was covered 

 with small conical kopjes of sandstone, some up to 

 100 feet, but most from 30 to 50 feet high. Their 

 colour was dark red. They lay in a ridge from N.W. 

 to S.E. In this sort of country, which seemed to fall 

 steadily, we went for thirty miles. Occasionally mag- 

 nificent views were obtained. Distance clothed these 

 hills and valleys with trees, and the mirage watered 

 them. 



When forty miles from Selima we entered a large 

 level plain, like that near Safsaf, save for the absence 

 of terabil. To the south-east the hills looked like a 

 range of mountains. Near here we found an old 

 marhaka (stone on which grain is ground by hand). 

 It was of natural concrete, of which there is a lot 

 about. There was a track running 245°, so we went 

 along it. 



Sixty miles from Selima we struck the Debbes-Legia 

 road, long disused, and some miles further on the 

 Terfaui-Legia one, so covered with camel skeletons 

 and droppings that it must have been a great highway 

 — no doubt in Dervish times — though no recent tracks 

 were on it. 



Near the latter road was a great barrier of barchans 

 (sand-drifts) running from S.W. to N.W. as far as one 

 could see. The sand was fairly firm, and winding 

 through it took us an hour. Beyond it was a sandy 

 depression, and not far from the latter a great plain, 

 covered with boulders three feet high or so. Behind 



