THE ESTUARIES OF JIBAN	49
In ten minutes, having ridden past the first of the coastal
palm-clumps, we drew rein at the second—a miserable grove
of neglected stems separated from the sea by a belt of un-
healthy-looking reeds and a line of dirty flotsam marking the
tidal limit. 'Ali went off stalking a Stone Curlew with my
gun while I made all possible haste to get the theodolite into
action. The rest, having nothing to do but fast, lay down to
sleep till I should be done. A large colony of locusts con-
tinued undisturbed their voracious depredations on the fronds
of the miserable palmlets, and we added some of them to my
collection before resuming our march at noon.
The main oasis of Salwa—a considerable area of scattered
and unprosperous groves—lies about a mile back from the
coast. Its central feature is a ruined fort in the midst of one
of the thicker plantations, while the palms depend for their
sustenance on a number of brackish springs with water almost
up to the ground-level. A large party of Manasir camels was
being watered at the time of our arrival at one of these
springs in the courtyard of the fort, and some of our men went
off to hobnob with Rashid al 'Abd ibn Mani', a handsome and
attractive young shaikhling of the tribe who was on his way
from Dauha to the Hasa. Meanwhile I spent a pleasant half-
hour examining the ruins and the oasis.
The fort, a square enclosure of 73 paces oriented ENE. and
WSW., consisted of a keep or dwelling-room in the SW.
corner and an open courtyard, which occupied the remainder
of the enclosure and was presumably intended for the accom-
modation of the owner's camels in times of danger. The
crumbled walls were of the same fossiliferous rock as we had
seen at Dhuwaiban, and the general lay-out of both places
suggested that they belong to the same epoch. I did not
trouble to collect pottery or other remains as Major Cheesman
had already investigated the ruins very thoroughly in 1921.
Nor did I visit another smaller and apparently similar ruin
on or near the coast, beyond which lay the waters of the Gulf,
resplendent with every shade of green and blue. The palms
of Salwa are ownerless and unattended but produce an annual
crop of dates to be gathered by any chance comer. What an
opportunity, I thought, for some enterprising body of the