'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎32v] (69/100)

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the sand gave way to a broad expanse of gritty soil and, as we
approached the escarpment, we entered on a wide strip of herbage
known as AI Haiya and marking the course of such drainage as
finds its way down the west side of the plateau and flows down
to the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. at the Tamra gap. This depression apparently extends
north along the edge of the escarpment as far as the border of
t le Nafudh JJaih and is fed by a number of petty rivulets descend
ing from the plateau through steep ravines. It was towards
one of these ravines, known as Shaib Kumaih, that we shaped
our course, reaching and camping for the night under the pre
cipitous escarpment at its point of issue therefrom after a
march of some eighteen miles from Raka and twenty-seven from
Dam, our height above sea-level being about 2,400 feet.
On June 7 we ascended Shaib • Kumaih, a striking gorge
down which the torrent bed descended steeply between gaunt
weather-worn buttresses of sandstone rock, confined to a narrow
? e great boulders and masses of debris fallen from the
hillside and m one place completely blocked by a sheer wall
ot rock the negotiation of which was an extremely delicate
task and resulted in one of our camels coming down so badly
that it Lad to be destroyed the same evening—an accident
which though regrettable was not altogether unwelcome as
we had had our last meat at the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. on the 5th and were not
hkely to fall in with shepherds for several days. Our course
up the Shaib ran south-east until, after about three miles of a
very toilsome passage, we reached its head in a comparatively
wide depression. On the right lay a solid barrier, while on the
cfil -I 3, tI 61 " 7 . I } arrow tongue-like ridge separated the valley of
bhaib Kumaih, in which we were, from that of Shaib Kumah
on the other side, the latter running down from the inner mass
o± broken hill-country practically due south into the Sulaiyyil
basm. J J
We now climbed up the steep slope to the summit of
tongue, along which a precarious path, scarcely ten feet in
width with sheer falls on either side, led for half a mile northward
to the edge of the plateau, and another mile in the same direction
brought us to a cairn some 2,900 feet above sea-level where we
rested to let the camels recover from their recent exertion and
to take in the wide view of upland and plain around us. To the
west extended the bare sand desert of the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , south-east
lay bulaiyyil, and southward beyond the rough extremities