Page 32 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

»•] t6r TO SUEZ. 15

indifferent, that it is merely used for the pur­
poses of irrigation, or for their camels. Dr.
Shaw’s opinion that the natives suffer from
drinking there is incorrect. They draw their
supply from some wells which are nearer to
T6r, from which the shipping is also furnished.
It is curious that both Dr. Shaw and Sir Fre­

derick Henniker specify the number of wells
at El Wadi,—the one at nine, and the other
at twelve, though it is very certain there are
no regular wells there at all. El Wadi is the
bed of a mountain torrent; and when this
becomes swollen from heavy rain, or the melt­
ing of the snow in elevated regions amidst the
mountains, it forms a stream of some magni­
tude, which, in 1832, destroyed several of the
trees, and caused considerable damage. It
rose to the height of five feet above the level
of the valley, and left, after the torrent had
subsided, an alluvial deposit a foot in thick­

ness. By digging, at any subsequent period,
to the depth of two or three feet, water soon
lodged in the hollow; but the number and
position of these, either from the rush of the
waters, or the deposition of mud and sand,
may be entirely changed during the course of
a single season.