Page 47 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

28 TOR TO SUEZ. [CH.

my eyes to the peculiarities of desert scenery,
the whole of the space we had quitted struck
me as being singularly barren and desolate.
A stratum of small dark stones, by which all
the nearer, as well as the more remote, hills
were thickly covered, gave them the appear­
ance of huge piles of black and frowning
crags. No trace of vegetation—not a blade
of grass—was visible ; even the common de­
sert shrubs nowhere grew in this vicinity.
Emerging from this scene of desolation to­

wards sunset, we entered upon a plain called
El Kaa, which is separated from the sea by
the chain of El Heman, and rises with a
gentle acclivity on the other hand until it
meets the first undulations of the hills which
form the roots of Jebel Serbal. Its rugged
and pinnacled summit was now receiving the
last golden tints from the setting sun, but all
below was enveloped in the evening’s gloom.

A fine moonlight night enabled us to travel
until twelve o’clock: we then halted, and the
Bedowins dispersed to collect from the shrubs
which grew in detached patches around us a
sufficiency of fuel for the night. It is erro­
neously concluded that the Bedowins are