c THE VERITABLE DESERT ' 245

found it at a depth of only three fathoms—good Shanna-like
water but far from copious. So the well had been abandoned
and it needed 'Ali himself to locate its position amid the sands
which had completely obliterated all trace of it. Near by
lay a considerable patch of exposed gypseous rock; whose
surface, whipped into little rigid wavelets, suggested the bed
of an ancient lake or lagoon.

Beyond it westward the valley-bed, curving round between
lofty ridges of sand, appeared in numerous patches of ex-
posed bed-rock until, crossing a low transverse sand-ridge,
we descended into the depression—still obviously part of the
same valley—of Zuwaira. Close under the sand-slope on our
right we came upon the single well of the locality, a shaft of
five fathoms, which '"Ali had sunk in the year (1928-20) before
Sibila and which, though covered over, had evidently been
used by visitors only a few weeks before our visit. The sandy
soil round the well still showed signs of moisture, and my
companions counted the tracks of fifteen camels belonging
doubtless to some raiding party. Here were the dead embers
of their coffee-fire and there they had prayed, while two men
were shown by their tracks to have gone off on foot to keep
watch from the hill-top while their fellows got on with the
nervous but necessary task of watering their camels and
filling their skins. The very sight of such tracks, old as they
were, brought on an attack of nerves in my small party,
which chafed impatiently as I carried out my usual routine
search for objects of scientific interest. The men who had
passed that way might, for all we knew, be due to return by
now. They might have encountered our baggage-party, they
might yet encounter ourselves. The more pity that we had
divided up our strength and the more reason to make haste
to rejoin our companions. Yet our short halt was not in
vain for Zayid picked up a flint implement to add to my
collection. So we resumed the march with no great delay
over a great, undulating rose-pink tract of downs lying
between lofty ridges more than a mile apart, thickly covered
with the lovely Zahr plant. Our course lay nearly due north
now for about three miles with the exposed bed of the valley
appearing in patches on our right, until from an intervening