10 THE EMPTY QUARTER

any need of guiding, for the desert was scored with numerous
meandering camel-paths which led us in a south-easterly
direction, presumably towards the wells. For all his lack of
topographical knowledge Zayid had led us on a true course
over a vast area of almost featureless desert, and I felt that he
deserved at least some credit for such an achievement. Un-
der his guidance I had explored some 70 miles of a previously
uncharted wilderness, and it was not his fault that the re-
sulting map should be so bare and naked. Jafura is a limb
of desolation, a dismal, unattractive wilderness, whose
western fringe Major Cheesman had skirted on his way from
Hufuf to Jabrin in 1924, while I had now struck diagonally
across its northern arm to come out on its eastern frontier.
Later I should cross its southern section in a south-westerly
direction to Jabrin, and we should have a fair idea of its
general character.

Suddenly the flat gravel plain began to sway and dip to an
abrupt transformation of rocky depressions outlined by
ridges and headlands. We had left Jafura behind us and
stood on the brink of the Jiban. And beyond them out of
sight lay the blue waters of the Persian Gulf.