PLAIN NORTH OF ADEN. 15 



oasis is well watered by a river wliich debouches from the bills to the 

 west of Jibal Manif, and after flowing past Zaida^ divides into two 

 branches north of Lahej. One (Wadi el Kebir) after passing- Mabilla, 

 Wahud and other villagesj reaches the harbour of Aden at Huswah^ but 

 it is only during heavy floods that any water ever reaches the sea. It 

 is all accounted for higher up the stream by its use for irrigation^ soaking 

 into the sand and evaporation. The other branch of the river runs by 

 Majhafa, Froosh and past Imad. It is from the water of this river that 

 the Sultan derives a large portion of his revenue, it being sold, by him 

 to the villagers at fixed rates, and the luxuriance of the crops raised 

 with its aid on the fine alluvial soil of the district^ is very striking in the 

 midst of such a sandy desert. To the west of the oasis the country is a 

 sandy desert for five and twenty miles, until one reaches the equally well 

 cultivated Abien tract watered by the Bunna and Hassan rivers flowing 

 southward from the hills. 



From Majhafa northwards the cultivation extends two miles or so. 

 After that one passes over a sandy plain (gravelly in places \ which rises 

 a little towards the north. At 10 or 12 miles from Majhafa one enters 

 on a belt of country extending from thence to the foot of the hills, in 

 which one passes over ridge after ridge of blown sand, each ridge rising 

 higher than the preceding one, so that the foot of the hills is, as 

 measured by aneroid^ 800 feet above the plain at Majhafa. This difference 

 is greater where I marched across them than to the west where it is not 

 more than 600 feet. The billow like ridges run west north- wegfc and 

 east soutb-east, and are thinly covered in places with coarse grass.* 



The only obtainable sections illustrating the geological structure of 



this plain are in the wells. Most of them are lined 

 Geological structure. . 



With stonework, but of those which are not so, I 



* One of tlie Arabs picked up here some small fragments of an ostrich egg browned by 

 the weather, which were interesting as being probably evidence of the former existence of 

 these birds in this part of Arabia where they are now extinct. 



( 271 ) 



