134 THE EMPTY QUARTER

ing. A very disagreeable dust-laden north wind arose during
the early hours and covered everything with sand. Abu
Ja'sha came and pegged down my tent-ropes in case of acci-
dents, but I slept peacefully enough, vaguely dreaming of
Wadi Dawasir traversing a vast gravel flat strewn with the
relics of an ancient civilisation.

Next morning the sky was clouded and the air cold and
clammy. Everything was grimed with sand and the sun was
feeble in the extreme. We had done about 25 miles the first
day and this day we did as much, traversing Buraika (over
the gravel to sands), Hawiya (over sands with much Ghadha
to gravel) and finally into the pastures of Madara where we
camped before 4 p.m. as the atmosphere, now warm and still,
had induced somnolence all round. Salim had stalked a
hare unsuccessfully while we halted to watch him, and the
Ghadha-covGTed sands had yielded a host of black beetles
with golden bands upon their shoulders. Also the Saluqi
bitch had chased a fox without result over the gravel strip,
which struck me as an ideal landing ground for aeroplanes. A
little Oryx dung had been seen but there were no traces of
the animal's recent passage.

Camel-paths running south and north in the Buraika
gravel were pointed out as leading to the Qasab watering,
but 'Ali declared that there had been no rain in this area for
seven or eight years. Yet there seemed to be a good deal for
camels to eat, rather dry but not dead. Far off to the south-
east appeared the dune-range of 'Arq al Ghanam, beyond
which, they said, lay similar ranges1 a day's journey away or
more. Just before reaching camp we passed an old, deserted
raven's nest in the fork of a Ghadha bush.

On the third day (January 28th) out from Maqainama we
reached Bir Fadhil after quite a short march. The whole
distance was about 55 miles and, about two miles short of the
wells, we entered real dune country—a stormy sea of lofty
billows tossed here and there in disorder but generally facing
north with a rolling crest or incipient horseshoe hollows.
Once we had to descend a very steep slope of soft sand,
while a strong blustering south wind blew about us till

1 'Uraq al Abal and 'Uruq al Khilla.