‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎155] (206/334)

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another two hours and a half in broken ground, we
came at last to a steep acclivity which proved, when
we had mounted it, to be the further ed^e of the
Meskakeh depression, and above it we found our
selves on a gravelly plain. The view from this
edge, looking back, was very interesting, and gave
us at once an idea of the geography of the whole
country, the great basin of Meskakeh with its tells
and sand hills, the long ridge of hill under which
the oasis stands, the range of Jebel Hammamiyeh
too, all mere islands in the basin, which seems
moreover to include Jof as well as the eastera
villages in its main circuit. Wilfrid has little
doubt now that Meskakeh and J6f are really
only the tail as it were of the "Wady Sirhd,n or
rather its head, for the whole must be in shape
something like a tadpole, and this point its nose.
The Hamdd or plain where we now were, is three
hundred and fifty feet higher than Kara and
Meskakeh, or 2220 feet above the sea. It is
absolutely level and bare of vegetation, a flat black
expanse of gravelly soil covered with small round
pebbles, extending southwards to the horizon, and
quite unlike anything in the basin below. We
were much surprised to find such an open plain in
front of us, for we had expected nothing now but
sand, but the sand, though we could not see it, was
not far off, and this was only as it were the shore
of the great Nefud.
At half past three o'clock we saw a red streak on