THE WATERLESS WASTE 311

point. We now however, at a distance of about 100 miles
from Naifa, came across and made a brief halt at a small
exposure about 100 yards long. It yielded nothing of parti-
cular interest, though it seemed to lie in a marked valley-
depression beyond which we plunged into a regular upland
of disordered dunes. Suddenly and for no apparent reason the
vegetation improved. The Abal bushes became more plentiful
with a good show of fresh shoots ; and there was some Alqa,
to say nothing of fresh Hadh. Lower your voices, growled
Salim; these folk never think as they march—always chatter-
ing and singing. There might be an Oryx about in such pas-
ture as this, and he would be gone at the slightest sound. To
judge by the frequent little heaps of dung-pellets this locality
had been discovered and made use of by the Rim gazelles,
but we saw nothing of them in passing.

At 10-30 a.m. we halted for less than an hour in a bare
upland tract with some Abal and Hadh for our camels to
browse on. On the way we had encountered some patches of
difficult dune country, and had observed at a little distance
to the right another small patch of exposed rock at the base
of a sand-ridge. Such exposures are generally termed Shuqqa,
and I asked Salim whether he had ever heard of the Kharaim1
or glades in the sand of which I remembered having heard
years before from Jabir, my Marri companion of an earlier
journey. Salim seemed puzzled by the question. He had
never heard the term, but Salih, who happened to be riding
with us, volunteered some information on the subject which
fitted in very well with the impression left in my mind by
Jabir. They are like the Shiqaq, he replied, and yet different,
for they are more extensive. Generally they are the salt-pans
or basins at the tail of the Wadis that run into the sands from
the Qara country in the south. We call them Khcvrima, and I
have seen such about Muqshin. Salim looked sceptical for he
had never heard of such things, but on this occasion Salih
was right. Mr, Thomas 2 mentions these Eharaim, which he
describes as a e skirting corridor/ as a characteristic feature
of the desert on the southern fringe of the great sands.

The sky was cloudless now, but conditions remained cool

1 Plural of Kharima. *See4ro&*a Fdix, p. 166.