XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
The Wadi Kenneh to the north, which conducts nearly all the western drainage of 
the ridge between Jebel Gharib and Jebel Kittar to the Nile, leads into a very 
interesting mountain-region, which may be taken as fairly representative of the Arabian 
desert. This wadi comes down in a southerly direction, thickly studded in places with 
acacias, and with other desert plants and shrubs, under which the burrows of many 
rodents occur. Insects are frequent, and also small birds 1 . 
As the Wadi Kenneh enters the hills plants become more numerous, and further up 
it is joined by one of its affluents, the Wadi Kittar, which comes down from a 
mountain of the same name. In some parts of its course the latter wadi is rich in 
mimosa-trees from 6 to 9 metres in height. One of its upper reaches is choked, in 
places, with great granite blocks, while higher up its bed is filled with gravel and 
scattered boulders ; and here, by scraping aside the gravel, water may be obtained in 
sufficient quantity to satisfy a few camels and men. Wilkinson 2 , who was the first to 
describe this wadi, mentioned the existence at the head of one of its ravines of a 
precipitous rock overgrown with hanging water-weeds, down which water dripped 
slowly. Below were palm-trees and rushes, and a basin which afforded a plentiful 
supply of excellent water on digging a hole in the gravel with which it was filled. 
Doubtless many other such natural reservoirs of rain-water are present in this desert, 
and are well known to the nomadic Arabs, who, however, never reveal their presence 
unless driven to do so, as they are entirely dependent on them for their supplies of 
water. 
In the Wadi Medisa, not far from the W T adi Kittar, there are other large basins 
of water, and to the north, in a small lateral valley near the Wadi Tarfaeh, and at 
an elevation of about 800 metres, there is a large very characteristic natural reservoir 
of which Schweinfurth has given an account and a drawing in his interesting com- 
munication on this part of the Arabian desert, entitled " La Terra Incognita dell' 
Egitto propriamenta detto " 3 . 
Animal life is always to be found in the neighbourhood of these reservoirs ; and 
Wilkinson, who knew this desert well, says that, so far from its being destitute 
of any trace of life, he had the pleasure of seeing gazelles and ibex browsing under 
Acacia Seyal. Mr. E. A. Floyer 4 , when in the vicinity of the reservoir in Wadi 
Kittar, found Hyrax syriacus and Capra sinaitica to be common ; and mentions that he 
saw three donkeys, one of them being young, leaping from rock to rock with the agility 
of goats. He considered them to be domestic animals ; but James Burton 5 , in the 
beginning of the second decade of this century, had observed the wild ass at Ayd, 
near Jebel Kenneh, not far to the south of the spot where Mr. Floyer saw his supposed 
domestic animals, and had called attention to the fact that the Arabs of this part of 
1 Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. ix. 1887, p. 670. " Journ. E. Geogr. Soc. ii. 1832, p. 49. 
'•' Giornale FEsploratore, anno ii. fasc. 4°, 5°, e 6°; and as a separate publication, Milano, 1878. 
1 Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. is. 18S7, p. G71. s Add. MS. Brit. Mus. 25,066. 
