File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎9v] (27/834)

Major Lawrence has supplied some new information about
this important wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , which affords the main channel of com
munication between the Hauran, Jauf and North-Central Arabia.
Kaf (pronounced Ljaf), at its head, is grouped popularly with
Wishwasha, Nebkh, Ithra and Jerjer, as el-Geraia or Geraiat
el-Milh, on the ground of common possession of vast saltworks
which seem to have escaped mention by European travellers.
Major Lawrence found the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. alive with snakes, of which some
half dozen varieties, ranging from nine to three feet in length,
are poisonous. His party lost three men from snake-bites. It is
particularly dangerous to water after dark, as the wells and pools
are then full of snakes swimming about. In the daytime they
are to be found in every bush. There and in the country to the
south many ostriches were seen, but none was caught. Major
Lawrence and three others breakfasted off one of their eggs, boiled
over a fire of gelignite sticks ( !) : it was about a month old. They
obtained a good deal of oryx meat and saw several of these
heavy-headed antelopes, very suggestive of oxen. The Huweitat
had a fine baby oryx in their tents. After the war it ought to
be arranged that this interesting species be represented by live
specimens in London. Another desideratum for the Zoo, by the
way, is a maneless lion from the Karun or Euphrates.
Maps of North- West Arabia.
Major Lawrence, as a result of his journeys in north
western Arabia, reports that all existing maps leave much to be
desired. The Arab Bureau Maan sheet (1:500,000) he found to
be not bad as a sketch of the general lie of the country ; but the
railway, he feels sure, is shown too far to the East, a mistake
which leads to the underestimating of all distances from it in an
inland direction. The Royal Geographical Society’s 1 : 2 , 000,000
sheet he condemns for all the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sirhan and Jauf region,
especially_ in its placing and spelling of localities. Miss Bell’s
traverse from Kaf to Seba Byar, the most important of the
A uld Ali watering places, he found to be good but too slight.
Between Maan and Akaba he condemns all our maps, British,
German and Turkish alike; e.g., an important watershed
between the Hisma (he doubts the general application of this
name to all the large plateau area usually so-called, and thinks
it is to be used only of a single wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. ) and Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ithm, some
eight miles south-west of Guweira, is nowhere properly marked.
It is certainly very desirable to run a route-survey up Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
t un, and to get the position of the railway fixed at several
points between Maan and Medina. Major Lawrence’s own route-
sketches are not yet to hand.
Yemen Letters.
Certain letters have come to hand from prominent persons
m the Yemen, addressed to King Husein at Mecca, but they
furnish little indication of any real partisan feeling in that area.