50 
VALLEY OF EL-HASEE. 
blackened by the contact of the air with the iron 
they contain. Under the sandstone was likewise a 
bed of yellow clay, with a mixture of gypsum . 
The face of the cliffs of the plateau was black- 
ened as with the smoke of a huge furnace, which 
gave a majestic and yet gloomy appearance to the 
scene as we descended the pass towards the valley 
of El-Hasee. We found the plain strewed with great 
masses of dark sandstone, seeming to have been de- 
tached by some convulsion from the rocky walls, 
which now rose in apparently interminable grandeur 
behind us. We glanced back in awe, and yet in some 
triumph, towards the iron-bound desert we had thus 
safely traversed; but our eyes soon turned from so 
bleak a prospect, when we beheld, dotting the sandy 
wady, clumps of the wild palm, green copses, and the 
majestic ethel-tree. 
It was about two in the afternoon when we 
reached the camping-ground, all our people shout- 
ing, Be-Selameh el TlamadahV Farewell to the 
Hamadah ! I cried out the same words in a joyful 
voice ; for, although now that the dangers of the 
plateau were overcome they seemed diminished in 
my eyes, yet I felt that we had escaped from a most 
trying march with wonderful good fortune. It is 
difficult to convey an idea of the horror and desola- 
tion of so vast a tract of waterless and uninhabited 
country. They alone who have breathed the sharp 
air of its blank nakedness can appreciate it, or un- 
derstand how any accidental delay, sickness', the 
