'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎193] (302/496)

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collected into a tolerably large stone basin, the overflowings of which
were lost in the sand. A large tree, from which depended a great many
nooses of. cord, attracted my attention, and I was told that once a year
all the Bedouin families meet here, and each kills a sheep, which is hung
up to one of these nooses, and then eaten, in common with the others.
It is an observance intended to renew their friendship and acquaintance
with each other, and as an opportunity of marrying their young people.
On my return to Dthubar, I crossed over the Dunanjir range more to
the eastward, and found them of the same formation as the hills I had
observed on my way to Shimberali. The distance travelled over in this
walk I compute at about seventy miles.
At a future period, accompanied by Commander C. D. Campbell, of
the Indian Navy, I left Dthubar, and, after walking in a north-westerly
direction, across a broad plain covered with ostriches, onyxes, koodoos,
and quaggas, but all of whom, save the latter, were too shy to admit of
at the distance of a mile below is absorbed in the sand. The native tradi
tion says that the stream runs only by night, and from this it takes its name,
“ Bheeyeh Grhora”—- a night-running water.” The actual increase in the
distance, occasioned doubtless by the evaporation being so great during
the day, we found by measurement to be 135 yards, but the stream had
then dwindled down to a mere thread. ‘The temperature of the stream
at seven a. m. was 69°, in the open air 71°. Following up the bed of
this stream towards the hills, we observed in many spots the ground
white with the efflorescence of nitre : the bitter taste of the water was
thus accounted for. As we approached the narrow defile in the hills,
through which the stream passed, pure salt was found adhering to the
smooth sandstone rocks, generally encrusted on a dark-coloured vein,
from which water exuded, and shortly after we reached a powerful hot
spring, shewing a temperature of 125°, the thermometer in the open air
standing at 76°.
Above this hot spring the valley became narrower, and, from the sand
stone and limestone sides of the ravine, water was observed at almost
every yard, dropping and forming large and beautiful stalactites. But