Leaving Al-Hijriyah At Seven A.M., We Passed Over The Grim Stone-Field
By A Detestable Footpath, And At Nine O’Clock Struck Into A Broad
Fiumara, Which Runs From The East Towards The North-West.
Its sandy bed
is overgrown with Acacia, the Senna plant, different species of
Euphorbiae, the wild Capparis, and the Daum Palm.
Up this line we
travelled the whole day. About six P.M., we came upon a basin at least
twelve miles broad, which absorbs the water of the adjacent hills.
Accustomed as I have been to mirage, a long thin line of salt
efflorescence appearing at some distance on the plain below us, when
the shades of evening invested the view, completely deceived me. Even
the Arabs were divided in opinion, some thinking it was the effects of
the rain which fell the day before: others were more acute. It is said
that beasts are never deceived by the mirage, and this, as far as my
experience goes, is correct. May not the reason be that most of them
know the vicinity of water rather by smell than by sight? Upon the
horizon beyond the plain rose dark, fort-like masses of rock which I
mistook for buildings, the more readily as the Shaykh had warned me
that we were approaching a populous place. At last descending a long
steep hill, we entered upon the level ground, and discovered our error
by the crunching sound of the camel[s’] feet upon large curling flakes of
nitrous salt overlying caked mud.[FN#18] Those civilised birds, the
kite and the crow, warned us that we were in the vicinity of man. It
was not, however, before eleven P.M. that we entered the confines of
Al-Suwayrkiyah. The fact was
[p.73] made patent to us by the stumbling and the falling of our
dromedaries over the little ridges of dried clay disposed in squares
upon the fields. There were other obstacles, such as garden walls,
wells, and hovels, so that midnight had sped before our weary camels
reached the resting-place. A rumour that we were to halt here the next
day, made us think lightly of present troubles; it proved, however, to
be false.
During the last four days I attentively observed the general face of
the country. This line is a succession of low plains and basins, here
quasi-circular, there irregularly oblong, surrounded by rolling hills
and cut by Fiumaras which pass through the higher ground. The basins
are divided by ridges and flats of basalt and greenstone averaging from
one hundred to two hundred feet in height. The general form is a huge
prism; sometimes they are table-topped. From Al-Madinah to
Al-Suwayrkiyah the low beds of sandy Fiumaras abound. From
Al-Suwayrkiyah to Al-Zaribah, their place is taken by “Ghadir,” or hollows
in which water stagnates. And beyond Al-Zaribah the traveller enters a
region of water-courses tending West and South-West The versant is
generally from the East and South-East towards the West and North-West.
Water obtained by digging is good where rain is fresh in the Fiumaras;
saltish, so as to taste at first unnaturally sweet, in the plains; and
bitter in the basins and lowlands where nitre effloresces and rain has
had time to become tainted.
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