100 THE EMPTY QUARTER

square but with a mass of debris in its midst which may per-
haps have been a tower or dwelling-room. A second ruin of
similar aspect lay close to it on some higher ground, while
about a mile to the southward was a considerable and inter-
esting group of plantations—all in a state of advanced decrepi-
tude—comprising Umm al' Adwa and Umm al Nussi with the
raised hump of a subterranean aqueduct between the two.
The former must formerly have covered an area of about
half a square mile to judge by the few surviving palm-stems
and a number of springs, all dead except one. This area has
been much encroached upon by blown sand, from whose
hummocks I had a good view of the surrounding country
between the always prominent Jawamir cliffs and the hog's
back hill of Dharbun in the steppe to the south. Another
prominent hillock to the south-east seen from many points in
the oasis is Mutrib, while the whole of the western horizon is
occupied by the Summan slopes which they call Al Mahadir.1
They stand up in the distance like a cliff with occasional
eminences, one group of which is named Al Uthaithiyat, being
likened by the Arabs to the stones they put together to form
a cooking tripod. The upland swings round in the promon-
tory of Barq al Samr to cut off the Jabrin basin on the south
and to form the southern bank of Jaub al Budu'. The bare
folds of this projection are sparsely dotted with acacias,2
which at all times provide food for the Badawin camels
when the ordinary pastures fail, while from the upland two
well-marked valleys descend into the Juba tract., The more
southerly of the two is Al Afja, a wide sandy torrent-bed
with a great profusion of typical bushes like Suwwad and
Shinan. In its bed is the most southerly spring of Jabrin,
*Ain al Nifl, whose pit is choked with palms and reeds, while
near by are the wells of Hafair at the edge of the flint-strewn
steppe. Only one of these wells still lives with somewhat
brackish water at a depth of two fathoms in a white chalky
sandstone soil, but it is here that the Badawin camp for the
rich pastures of Afja on arriving at or departing from Jabrin.

1 Major Cheesman's ' Umm Hadiya.'

2 Though the area bears the name of Samr (a kind of acacia), its acacia
bushes are of the variety known as Salam.