File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎76v] (161/834)

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f Later News .—In the raid on JauE el-Derwish reported
above, Sheri 1* Nasir’s force killed eighty of the enemy and took
200 prisoners, including seven officers. 1 heir booty also included
twenty-five mules, while rolling stock and two engines were
damaged. Further operations in this area have been delayed by
intense cold and heavy falls of snow and hail ; ten of the Arabs
died from exposure on one day.
On January 9, our aeroplanes again bombarded Maa.n station,
where they dropped nearly half a ton of bombs. 1 he lurks
have withdrawn from Uheida, and are holding a line three miles
west of Maan, between Wadis Semna and Semana.
Sherif Ali telegraphs that his troops have completely
destroyed Misarbo bridge between Hafira and Bowat, and cut a
kilometre of railway between Bowat and Bir Nasif. They are
further reported to have attacked Kawil, near Hafira, where they
killed seven men, four mules and three camels, and captured two
mules and seven rifles. Misarbo and Kawil are both unidentified.]
The Jtead Sea.
The following information has been supplied by Fere
Janssen, who is well acquainted with the country round the
Dead Sea :—
(a) The island and peninsula of Rujm el-Bahr, which are
given on most of the maps of Palestine, no longer exist, having
been covered by a rise in the water level. All boats plying in
this part of the lake, and in the mouth of the Jordan, must be
careful to avoid grounding there on the submerged Rujm el-Bahr
Peninsula or on other mud banks. The name Rujm el-Bahr is
given now to the coast near the former peninsula.
(b) The winds rarely blow north or south on the Dead Sea.
The prevailing wind is from the west, but in March heavy
southerly gales are frequent. In heavy weather, when the wind
is blowing from the west, shelter can be obtained by lying at a
number of points on the west shore of the lake under shelter of
the cliffs or steep mountain sides of the lake. There is a cove,
into which boats can enter, at the mouth of the brook Kedron
( Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. el-Nar). This cove is good shelter when strong west
winds are blowing. Shelter is usually obtainable on the eastern
shore of the promontory of el-Lisan, but this is much exposed
on the rare occasions when the wind blows from the north.
(c) Roads near the Dead Sea .—From Ras Feshkhah, on the
north-west coast of the Dead Sea, to Engeddi (Ain Jidy), the west
coast of the Dead Sea offers no sort of thoroughfare, not even a
mule track. I here is no long stretch of beach along which
animals could move, and between such of the stretches as exist
theie are successions of cliffs or steep hillsides running sheer
into the water. From Engeddi to Jebel Usdum (Sodom)
there is a track practicable for pack animals running alon 0- the
beach. The track from Jerusalem to Engeddi, and part of the
descent from Engeddi to the water, run through very broken