THE WATERLESS WASTE 325 now with numerous fingers extending octopus-like into the northern sands, which in response threw out occasional tongues of sand across our path. We crossed a mile-wide estuary of gravel, to which Salim gave the name of Janah Sahma, after striking across a considerable bulge of sand with a good sprinkling of Abal bushes. Here we actually saw a lark and recent tracks of a raven, which had however decamped from the scene, while a little further on the horns and skeleton of an Oryx lay upon the sand. The Sahma wing, on which we were, was said by Salim to run up north-east for a considerable distance, forming the dividing line between the first two dune-ranges of 'Awariq. The steady but slight rise of the land with our westward marching was imperceptible to the senses, A better speed-track than these vast plains of light gravel could scarcely be conceived and I thought with a shudder, as I rode on, that perhaps some day, after just such rains as we had had, this strange wilderness may be visited by motoring parties in search of gazelles and Oryx ! So far as I can form an opinion on the subject there is nothing but lack of water to prevent the penetration of motor cars into the very heart of the Empty Quarter down to about the nineteenth parallel or perhaps further. But the sand-desert eastward of Sahma will probably for ever remain inviolate. It would be sheer insanity to involve oneself with a motor car in such a maze. My companions alternately slept in their saddles and burst into their dreary shanty-singing to relieve the monotony of the desert's dullness. During the early part of the morning a* south-easterly breeze fanned us from behind, cool aad gentle, and the plain was dotted with pools of mirage. We began to grow weary and about 10-30 a.m. decided on & brief halt to rest ourselves and our camels. We cam© to a stop