File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎110v] (229/834)

72 —
reached some five or six miles further on, being one of the main
drainage channels of the Nejd highlands which it drains south
ward with a slightly south-easterl } 7 tendency into a large sand
tract called Nafudh Dahi, apparently situated to the north of the
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dawasir.
About three miles further on we entered the Nafudh Sirra
where begins a vast confused tract of sand interspersed with
rocky ridges and extending westward to the edge of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
Naim, which forms the boundary between the Ateibah and Subai
tribes at this point, the Qahtan lying to the south of them
around the mountains of Sabha, Idhqan and Hasat el-Qahtan
whence they extend southward to the confines of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dawasir
and into the wedge formed by the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tathlith to the
south-east.
The Nafudh tract, into which we now entered, extends
some fifty miles or more from east to west and we camped
within its borders on two nights. Various sections of it carry
local names, e.g. N. Sirra in the neighbourhood of W. Sirra,
N. Junaih round the hill of that name, N. Sakha round the
Sakha wells, Shaib Raddadi further west and N. Bis liar a
contiguous to W. A aim, while each of the many ridges which
occur at irregular intervals among the sands has also a distinctive
name, e.g. the Alam ridge on the eastern fringe of the Nafudh,
the Zeidi range in which we camped the first night and which
runs down a considerable distance to the southward, the solitary
Jebel duniah, so called from the resemblance of what can be
seen of the hill above the sands to the outspread wino-s of a
raven, the little peaks of Mukhyat, the Idhn and Karsh ridges
and a host of little ridges interlacing towards the western
extremity of the sands and ending in the sand-covered ridge of
Abu JNubta from which one passes into the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Naim.
The whole of the tract is famed among the Bedouin for its
excellent grazing but enjoys a very scanty rainfall. Wells there
are m plenty, notably those of the great depression of Sakha
wliki 6 ° } ? r 'f cu f * ,u 5 phenomenon of braebisb and sweet
wat- f' SKe ■y'"’ ^ ! e h-'frier masonry-lined and used for
watering animals washing, etc,, while sweet water is found in
waterholes scraped up in the sand close by.
Budai"^ f ) T" d S ’ lk:lla . " e P flssed ti,e brackish wells of
\ urai'h ho b £TT> n m , the sa " d . wl 'ile the wells of
and hhl of M 1 y 1 v SOUtl) , ^ Saklla 111 the Zeidi range
and tllose of Mahdach be to the north of Shaib Liaddi—to
mention a tew only of those mentioned to me as we marched
of
here about two q 001 , an( ^ mossing the depression,
• 01 , two , miles broad and sandy, we struck across fij
“Torth a^sS l S ‘f V “i^ t
course which was T"
excrescences broke the monotonous ouZk 0 ^