Page 7 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

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NOTE

This volume of the Handbook of Arabia is devoted mainly to
detailed routes, preceded by two chapters on methods of transport
and lines of communication ; the facts with regard to the available
supply of camels among the Bedouin tribes, incorporated in the first
chapter, are from native information obtained since the outbreak
of the war. The routes are arranged on a geographical basis, which
follows, with some modifications, the arrangement of chapters in
Vol. I. The Northern Routes are described first, as they form the
inland lines of approach to Central Arabia from the Syrian Hamad
and the Mesopotamian plain. The Eastern Routes to the centre,
from the Shatt el-:Arab and the Gulf Coast, naturally succeed those
from the Euphrates Valley. The two trunk-routes through Central
Arabia are next described, and then follow the Western Routes,
beginning with the Hejaz Railway and with tracks into Central
Arabia from intermediate stations on the line, from towns on the
Red Sea littoral, and from Medina and Mecca. Erom this point
the arrangement follows that of Chapters IV-VTII in Vol. I, the
last route in the volume linking up the series of South-Western*
Southern and South-Eastern Routes with the Eastern Routes
already described.

The authorities from which the routes have been compiled,
together with notes on direction and distance, are given at the head
of each ; descriptions of the character of a route and its supplies will
be found in the corresponding section of the chapter on communica­

tions, to which a page-reference is added at the head of the route.
The references which follow the names of towns in the body of
a route refer to descriptions in Vol. I; all other references are to
the pages of the second volume. Wherever possible a route has
been divided into stages of a day’s march, the length of which is

°f course determined by local conditions and the occurrence of
water ; in little-known country, or where water is carried and