Page 22 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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12 PHYSICAL SURVEY S

fall If wholly or partly granitic, and situated in a zone of regular,
though small, seasonal precipitation (as is the norunem jNefei ),
it offers both a comparatively compact surface and also pastuie
during some months of the year. If wholly sandstone or limestone,
i it will be softer, dustier, and less productive, but not altogether
without vegetation in spring, unless it happens to occur in a zond of
very slight and uncertain precipitation, as in parts of the great
•« I southern desert area.
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3. Ahqdf is rare in Arabia, the one great tract of i£ lyingfat the
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• : western end of the southern desert. Possibly it is onlj a local name
for heavy nefud.
4. Hurrah lies in patches only, and these can often be avoided
altogether. If it must be crossed, it is very bad going, owing to the
* wear and tear to which the feet and legs of pack-animals are exposed,-
and to the heat reflected from its surface. But, as e. g. nea,r
Ivheibar, it is often Relieved by intervals *or inlets of fertile detritus
or exposed under-formation. • *
Steppe.—Such are the varieties of surface which an Arab would
reckon desert, i. e. country in which he will not halt more thaii
a night or two, hxcept perhaps during early spring. But it is
necessary also to reckon with vast tracts of hard or clusty surface,
plain or undulating, which, having occasional natural water-holes
and permanent coarse vegetation in hollows, we should characterize
as steppe. Here and on the northern Nefud the camel-breeding
nomads chiefly eleef to roam ; but a European force would find
them almost as prohibitive as any kind of true desert, especially in
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late summer and early autumn.
Ring of Deserts.—Deserts of one variety or another, broken on the
NW. and the W. by brief intervals of steppe, make a ring of varying
breadth round Nejd. On certain coasts this ring comes down to
the shore-line*itself, or a very short distance behind it. In the

V Oman district and on the Red Sea side it lies farther inland, bfit
x. .-.:v : ■ in the last region is replaced on the coast-line by very lean steppe.
On the north, between the Hamad and Nejd, lies a belt of npfud,
which does not quite fill the whole base of the peninsula and is not
of the same breadth everywhere. On the Red Sea side it stops
short of the Midianite Hlsma and the ‘Aweiridh hurrah, leaving a
passage through steppe, which for centuries has been taken advan­
tage of by the Sunni pilgrim road to Medina and Mecca, and is
followed now by the Hejaz Railway. At its eastern end,’ on the
other hand, the nefud narrows to a very thin and patchy neck N't
of Ha’il, before, changing to dahunah, it sweeps round southward to
continue the ring along the Gulf shore. This narrowing has
per-

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