48 THE EMPTY QUAKTJBK

pointed out to me the track of a solitary Ford car which,
after the pilgrimage of 1931, had made the stupendous jour-
ney from Mecca to Abu Dhabi on the Pirate Coast of the Per-
sian Gulf under the guidance of a man of the Manasir tribe.
The car had struck across the peninsula to 'Uqair and thence
followed the coast to its destination. It was certainly a great
performance, which deserves to be rescued from oblivion,
though I was unable to ascertain how long the journey had
taken. By such feats of pioneering a network of practicable
motor roads is being slowly but surely spread over the face of
the Arabian desert, which until a decade ago had never known
any means of transportation other than the camel.

Similar paths to that on which we rode were seen now to
be converging from numerous points beyond the salt-flats
towards the * harbour ' of Salwa, which is no more than a
strip of tidal mud on the coast of the long tongue of sea that
projects southward from the Gulf of Bahrain into the base of
the Qatar peninsula. The harbour, in which rode a dozen or
so of dhows at anchor, faces the derelict coastal palm-groves
of Salwa across the channel perhaps a mile wide, more or less.
Our course lay dead on the palms across the flat which, as it
approaches the sea, turns to a glistening, salty whiteness. It
is profusely strewn with little spiral shells1 so common in
the Hasa and to be found by us in due course at numerous
places, in the Empty Quarter and beyond. They crunched
deliciously under the soft padding of our camels, which shied
nervously as they came to the channel, now narrowed to
about 50 yards and crossing our path to a considerable dis-
tance beyond. At times the water at this ford is deep
enough to necessitate a wide circuit to the southward but we
found it barely knee-deep. Yet the camels had to be coaxed,
forced or led into the water, and such is the perversity of their
race that no sooner had they reached mid-stream than some
made vigorous efforts to bathe while others, having refused
to drink fresh water at Ba'aij, stretched forth their long
necks to take a gulp of the salt liquid as they passed. It is
not good for them and the Arabs showed no sympathy for
such depravity.

1 For details regarding shells see Appendix.