A Week Around and upon the Shárr MountainRésumé of the March
Through Eastern or Central Midian.
For months the Jebel Shárr, the grand block which backs
El-Muwaylah, had haunted us, starting up unexpectedly in all
directions, with its towering heads, that shifted shape and
colour from every angle, and with each successive change of
weather. We could hardly leave unexplored the classical "Hippos
Mons," the Moslem's El-Ishárah ("the Landmark"), and the
Bullock's Horns of the prosaic British tar.[EN#16] The few vacant
days before the arrival of the Sinnár offered an excellent
opportunity for studying the Alpine ranges of maritime Midian.
Their stony heights, they said, contain wells and water in
abundance, with palms, remains of furnaces, and other
attractions. Every gun was brought into requisition, by tales of
leopard and ibex, the latter attaining the size of bullocks (!)
and occasionally finding their way to the fort:--it was curious
to hear our friends, who, as usual, were great upon "le shport,"
gravely debating whether it would be safe to fire upon le
léopard. I was anxious to collect specimens of botany and natural
history from an altitude hitherto unreached by any traveller in
Western Arabia; and, lastly, there was geography as well as
mineralogy to be done.
The Hydrographic Chart gives the Mountain a maximum of nine
thousand[EN#17] feet, evidently a clerical error often
repeated--really those Admiralty gentleman are too incurious:
Wellsted, who surveyed it, remarks (II. X.), "The height of the
most elevated peak was found to be 6500 feet, and it obtained
from us the appellation of Mowilabh High Peak"'--when there are
native names for every head. We had been convinced that the
lesser is the true measure, by our view from the Hismá plateau,
3800 feet above sea-level. Again, the form, the size, and the
inclination of the noble massif are wrongly laid down by the
hydrographers. It is a compact block, everywhere rising abruptly
from low and sandy watercourses, and completely detached from its
neighbours by broad Wadys--the Surr to the north and east, while
southwards run the Kuwayd and the Zahakán. The huge long-oval
prism measures nineteen and a half by five miles (= ninety-seven
and a half square miles of area); and its lay is 320° (mag.),
thus deflected 40° westward of the magnetic north. The general
appearance, seen in profile from the west, is a Pentedactylon, a
central apex, with two others on each side, tossed, as it were,
to the north and south, and turning, like chiens de faïence,
their backs upon one another.
Moreover, the Chart assigns to its "Mount Mowilah" only two great
culminations--"Sharp Peak, 6330 feet," to the north; and south of
it, "High Peak, 9000." The surveyors doubtless found difficulty
in obtaining the Bedawi names for the several features, which are
unknown to the citizens of the coast; but they might easily have
consulted the only authorities, the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, who graze
their flocks and herds on and around the mountain. As usual in
Arabia, the four several main "horns" are called after the
Fiumaras that drain them. The northernmost is the Abú Gusayb
(Kusayb) or Ras el-Gusayb (the "Little Reed"), a unity composed
of a single block and of three knobs in a knot; the tallest of
the latter, especially when viewed from the south, resembles an
erect and reflexed thumb--hence our "Sharp Peak." Follows Umm
el-Furút (the "Mother of Plenty"), a mural crest, a quoin-shaped
wall, cliffing to the south: the face, perpendicular where it
looks seawards, bears a succession of scars, upright gashes, the
work of wind and weather; and the body which supports it is a
slope disposed at the natural angle. An innominatus, in the shape
of a similar quoin, is separated by a deep Col, apparently a
torrent-bed, from a huge Beco de Papagaio--the "Parrot's Bill" so
common in the Brazil. This is the Abú Shenázir or Shaykhánib (the
"Father of Columns"); and, as if two names did not suffice, it
has a third, Ras el-Huwayz ("of the Little Cistern"). It is our
"High Peak," the most remarkable feature of the sea-façade, even
when it conceals the pair of towering pillars that show
conspicuously to the north and south. From the beak-shaped apex
the range begins to decline and fall; there is little to notice
in the fourth horn, whose unimportant items, the Ras Lahyánah,
the Jebel Maí'h, and the Umm Gisr (Jisr), end the wall. Each has
its huge white Wady, striping the country in alternation with
dark-brown divides, and trending coastwards in the usual network.
The material of the four crests is the normal grey granite,
enormous lumps and masses rounded by degradation; all chasms and
naked columns, with here and there a sheet burnished by ancient
cataracts, and a slide trickling with water, unseen in the shade
and flashing in the sun like a sheet of crystal. The granite,
however, is a mere mask or excrescence, being everywhere based
upon and backed by the green and red plutonic traps which have
enveloped it. And the prism has no easy inland slopes, as a first
glance suggests; instead of being the sea-wall of a great
plateau, it falls abruptly to the east as well as to the west.
The country behind it shows a perspective of high and low hills,
lines of dark rock divided from one another by Wadys of the usual
exaggerated size. Of these minor heights only one, the Jebel
el-Sahhárah looks down upon the sea, rising between the
Dibbagh-Kh'shabríyyah block to the north, and the Shárr to the
south. Beyond the broken eastern ground, the ruddy Hismá and the
gloomy Harrah form the fitting horizon.
After this much for geography, we may view the monarch of
Midianite mountains in the beauty and the majesty of his
picturesque form. Seen from El-Muwaylah, he is equally
magnificent in the flush of morning, in the still of noon, and in
the evening glow. As the rays, which suggested the obelisk, are
shooting over the southern crests, leaving the basement blue with
a tint between the amethyst and the lapis lazuli, its northern
third lies wrapped in a cloak of cold azure grey, and its central
length already dons a half-light of warmer hue. Meanwhile, the
side next the sun is flooded with an aerial aureole of subtle
mist, a drift of liquid gold, a gush of living light, rippling
from the unrisen orb, decreasing in warmth and brilliancy, paling
and fading and waxing faint with infinite gradations proportioned
to the increase of distance. Again, after the clear brooding
sheen of day has set off the "stark strength and grandeur of
rock-form contrasted with the brilliancy and sprightliness of
sea," the sinking sun paints the scene with the most gorgeous of
blazonings. The colours of the pale rock-skeleton are so faint
that there is nothing to interfere with the perfect development
of atmospheric effects: it is a white sheet spread to catch the
grand illumination, lambent lights of saffron and peach-blossom
and shades of purple and hyacinth. As indescribably lovely is the
after-glow, the zodiacal light which may have originated the
pyramid; the lively pink reflection from the upper atmosphere;
the vast variety of tints with which the greens and the reds, the
purples and the fiery crimsons of the western sky tincture the
receptive surface of the neutral-hued granites; and the
chameleon-shiftings of the dying day, as it sinks into the arms
of night. Nor less admirable are the feats of the fairy
Refraction. The mighty curtain seems to rise and fall as if by
magic: it imitates, as it were, the framework of man. In early
morning the dancing of the air adds many a hundred cubits to its
apparent stature: it is now a giant, when at midnight, after the
equipoise of atmospheric currents, it becomes a dwarf replica of
its former self.
* * * * * *
I had neglected to order overnight the camels from El-Muwaylah, a
penny-wise proceeding which delayed our departure. It was nearly
nine a.m. (March 13th) before we left the Mukhbir, whose
unhappies still sighed and yearned for the civilization and
dissipation of Suez; landed at the head of the Sharm Yáhárr, and
marched up the Wady Hárr. We were guided by two Jeráfín, Sulayman
ibn Musallim and Farj ibn Awayz; the former a model hill-man, a
sturdy, thick-legged, huge-calved, gruff-voiced, full-bearded
fellow, hot-tempered, good-humoured, and renowned as an
ibex-hunter. His gun, marked "Lazari Coitinaz," was a
long-barrelled Spanish musket, degraded to a matchlock: it had
often changed hands, probably by theft, and the present owner
declared that he had bought it for seventy dollars--nearly £15!
Yet its only luxury was the bottom of a breechloader brass
cartridge, inlaid and flanked by the sharp incisors of the little
Wabar, or mountain coney. These Bedawin make gunpowder for
themselves; they find saltpetre in every cavern, and they buy
from Egypt the sulphur which is found in their own hills.
After a few minutes we left the Hárr, which drains the tallest of
the inland hillock-ranges, and the red block "Hamrá el-Maysarah;"
and we struck south-east into the Wady Sanawíyyah. It is a vulgar
valley with a novelty, the Tamrat Faraj. This cairn of
brick-coloured boulders buttressing the right bank has, or is
said to have, the Memnonic property of emitting sounds--Yarinn is
the Bedawi word. The boomings and bellowings are said to be
loudest at sunrise and sunset. The "hideous hum" of such
subterraneous thunderings is alluded to by all travellers in the
Dalmatian Island of Melada, and in the Narenta Valley. The marvel
has been accounted for by the escape of imprisoned air unequally
expanded, but "a veil of mystery hangs over the whole."[EN#18]
The valley-sides of dark trap were striped with white veins of
heat-altered argil; the sole with black magnetic sand; and
patches of the bed were buttercup-yellow with the Handán
(dandelion), the Cytisus, and the Zaram (Panicum turgidum) loved
by camels. Their jaundiced hue contrasted vividly with the red
and mauve blossoms of the boragine El-Kahlá, the blue flowerets
of the Lavandula (El-Zayti), and the delicate green of the
useless[EN#19] asphodel (El-Borag), which now gave a faint and
shadowy aspect of verdure to the slopes. Although the rise was
inconsiderable, the importance of the vegetation palpably
decreased as we advanced inland.
After four miles we reached the Wady-head, and wasted a couple of
hours awaiting the camels that carried our supplies. The path
then struck over a stony divide, with the Hamrá to the left or
north, and on the other side the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, made
familiar to us by our last march. The latter ends in an isolated
peak, the Jebel Gharghúr, which, on our return, was mistaken for
the sulphur-hill of Jibbah. Presently we renewed acquaintance
with the Wady el-Bayzá, whose lower course we had crossed south
of Sharm Yáhárr: here it is a long and broad, white and
tree-dotted expanse, glaring withal, and subtending all this
section of the Shárr's sea-facing base. We reached, after a total
of eight miles, the Jibál el-Kawáim, or "the Perpendiculars," one
of the features which the Bedawin picturesquely call the Aulád
el-Shárr ("Sons of the Sha'rr"). The three heads, projected
westwards from the Umm Furút peak and then trending northwards,
form a lateral valley, a bay known as Wady el-Káimah. It is a
picturesque feature with its dark sands and red grit, while the
profile of No. 3 head, the Káimat Abú Rákí, shows a snub-nosed
face in a judicial wig, the trees forming an apology for a beard.
I thought of "Buzfuz Bovill."
We camped early, as the Safh el-Shárr (the "Plain of the Shárr")
and the lateral valley were found strewed with quartzes, white,
pink, and deep slate-blue. The guides had accidentally mentioned
a "Jebel el-Marú," and I determined to visit it next morning. The
night was warm and still. The radiation of heat from the huge
rock-range explained the absence of cold, so remarkable during
all this excursion--hence the African traveller ever avoids
camping near bare stones. Dew, however, wetted our boxes like
thin rain: the meteor, remarked for the first time on March 13th,
will last, they say, three months, and will greatly forward
vegetation. It seems to be uncertain, or rather to be influenced
by conditions which we had no opportunity of studying: at times
it would be exceptionally heavy, and in other places it was
entirely absent. Before evening new contract-boots, bought from
the Mukhbir, were distributed to the soldiers and all the
quarrymen, who limped painfully on their poor bare feet:--next
day all wore their well-hidden old boots.
Early on March 14th we ascended the Wady el-Káimah, which showed
a singular spectacle, and read us another lecture upon the
diversity of formation which distinguishes this region. An abrupt
turn then led over rough ground, the lower folds of the Umm
Furút, where a great granite gorge, the Nakb Abú Shár, ran up to
a depression in the dorsum, an apparently practicable Col.
Suddenly the rocks assumed the quaintest hues and forms. The
quartz, slaty-blue and black, was here spotted and streaked with
a dull, dead white, as though stained by the droppings of myriad
birds: there it lay veined and marbled with the most vivid of
rainbow colours-- reds and purples, greens and yellows, set off
by the pale chalky white. Evident signs of work were remarked in
a made road running up to the Jebel el-Marú (proper), whose
strike is 38° (mag.), and whose dip is westward. It is an arête,
a cock's-comb of snowy quartz some sixty feet high by forty-five
broad at the base; crowning a granitic fold that descends
abruptly, with a deep fall on either side, from the "Mother of
Plenty." This strangely isolated wall, left standing by the
denudation that swept away the containing stone, had been broken
by perpendicular rifts into four distinct sections; the colour
became whiter as it neared the coping, and each rock was crowned
with a capping that sparkled like silver in the sudden glance of
the "cloud-compelling" sun. The sight delighted us; and M. Lacaze
here made one of his most effective croquis, showing the
explorers reduced to the size of ants. As yet we had seen nothing
of the kind; nor shall we see a similar vein till we reach
Abú'l-Marwah, near our farthest southern point. I expected a
corresponding formation upon the opposite eastern versant: we
found only a huge crest, a spine of black plutonic rock,
intensely ugly and repulsive. As we rode back down the "Valley of
the Perpendiculars," the aspect of the Jebel el-Marú was
épâtant--to use another favourite camp-word. Standing sharply out
from its vague and gloomy background made gloomier by the morning
mists, the Col, whose steep rain-cut slopes and sole were
scattered with dark trees and darker rocks, this glittering wall
became the shell of an enchanted castle in Gustave Doré.
Returning to our old camping-ground after a ride of three hours
and thirty minutes (= nine miles), we crossed two short divides,
and descended the Wady el-Kusayb, which gives a name to "Sharp
Peak." Here a few formless stone-heaps and straggling bushes
represented the ruins, the gardens of palms, and the bullrushes
of the Bedawi shepherd lads.[EN#20] Our tents had been pitched in
the rond-point of the Wady Surr, which before had given us
hospitality (February 19th), on a Safh or high bouldery ledge of
the left bank, where it receives the broad Kusayb watercourse.
The day had been sultry; the sun was a "rain sun," while the
clouds massed thick to the south-west; and at night the lamps of
heaven shone with a reddish, lurid light. The tent-pegs were
weighted with camel-boxes against the storm; nevertheless, our
mess-tent was levelled in a moment by the howling
north-easter--warm withal--which, setting in about midnight, made
all things uncomfortable enough.
Whilst the caravan was ordered to march straight up the noble
Wady Surr, we set off next morning at six a.m. up the Wady Malíh,
the north-eastern branch of the bulge in the bed. A few Arab
tents were scattered about the bushes above the mouth; and among
the yelping curs was a smoky-faced tyke which might have been
Eskimo-bred:--hereabouts poor Brahim had been lost, and was not
fated to be found. A cross-country climb led to the Jebel Malíh,
whose fame for metallic wealth gave us the smallest
expectations--hitherto all our discoveries came by surprise. A
careful examination showed nothing at all; but a few days
afterwards glorious specimens of cast copper were brought in, the
Bedawi declaring that he had found them amongst the adjoining
hills. In the re-entering angles of the subjacent Wady the thrust
of a stick is everywhere followed by the reappearance of
stored-up rain, and the sole shows a large puddle of brackish and
polluted water. Perhaps the Malayh of the Bedawin may mean "the
salt" (Málih), not "the pleasant" (Malíh). Malíh, or Mallih, is
also the name of a plant, the Reaumuria vernice of Forskâl.
Resuming our ride up the torrent-bed, and crossing to the Wady
Daumah (of the "Single Daum-palm"), we dragged our mules down a
ladder of rock and boulder, the left bank of the upper Surr. The
great valley now defines, sharply as a knife-cut, the
northernmost outlines of the Shárr, whose apex, El-Kusayb,
towered above our heads. Thorn-trees are abundant; fan-palm bush
grows in patches; and we came upon what looked like a flowing
stream ruffled by the morning breeze: the guides declared that it
is a rain-pool, dry as a bone in summer. Presently the rocky bed
made a sharp turn; and its "Gate," opened upon another widening,
the meeting place of four Wadys, the northern being the Wady
Zibayyib that drains ruddy Abál-bárid.
After a short halt to examine the rude ruins reported by Mr.
Clarke,[EN#21] we resumed the ascent of the Surr, whose left bank
still defines the eastern edge of the Shárr. The latter presently
puts forth the jagged spine of black and repulsive plutonic rock,
which notes the Sha'b Makhúl, the corresponding versant of the
Nakb Abú Sha'r. The Bedawin, who, as usual, luxuriate in
nomenclature, distinguish between the eastern and western faces
of the same block, and between the Wadys of the scarp and the
counter-scarp. For instance, the eastern front of the Ras
el-Kusayb is called Abú Kurayg (Kurayj). This is natural, as the
formations, often of a different material, show completely
different features.
A little further on, the continuity of the right bank is broken
by the Wady el-Hámah. It receives the Wady Kh'shabríyyah, which,
bifurcating in the upper bed, drains the Dibbagh and the Umm
Jedayl blocks; and in the fork lie, we were told, the ruins of
El-Fara', some five hours' march from this section of the Surr.
At the confluence of El-Hámah we found the camels grazing and the
tents pitched without orders: the two Shaykhs were determined to
waste another day, so they were directed to reload while we
breakfasted. Everything was in favour of a long march; the dusty,
gusty north-easter had blown itself out in favour of a pleasant
southerly wind, a sea breeze deflected from the west.
After marching three miles we camped at the foot of the ridge to
be ascended next morning: the place is called Safhat el-Mu'ayrah
from a slaty schistose hill on the eastern bank. The guides
declared that the only practicable line to the summit was from
this place; and that the Sha'bs (Cols) generally cannot be
climbed even by the Arabs--I have reason to believe the reverse.
Musallim, an old Bedawi, brought, amongst other specimens from
the adjacent atelier, the Mashghal el-Mu'ayrah, a bright bead
about the size of No. 5 shot: in the evening dusk it was taken
for gold, and it already aroused debates concerning the proper
direction of the promised reward, fifty dollars. The morning
light showed fine copper. Here free metal was distinctly
traceable in the scoriæ, and it was the first time that we had
seen slag so carelessly worked. Not a little merriment was caused
by the ostentatious display of "gold-stones," marked by M.
Philipin's copper-nailed boots. Sulaymán, the Bedawi, had killed
a Wabar, whose sadly mutilated form appeared to be that of the
Syrian hill coney: these men split the bullet into four; "pot" at
the shortest distance, and, of course, blow to pieces any small
game they may happen to hit.
Early on March 16th we attacked the Shárr in a general direction
from north to south, where the ascent looked easy enough. On the
left bank a porphyritic block, up whose side a mule can be
ridden, is disposed in a slope of the palest and most languid of
greens, broken by piles of black rock so regular as to appear
artificial. This step leads to a horizontal crest, a broken wall
forming its summit: it is evidently an outlier; and experience
asked, What will be behind it? The more distant plane showed only
the heads of the Shenázir or "Pins," the two quaint columns which
are visible as far as the Shárr itself. This lower block is
bounded, north and south, by gorges; fissures that date from the
birth of the mountain, deepened by age and raging torrents:
apparently they offered no passage. In the former direction yawns
the Rushúh Abú Tinázib, so called from its growth--the
Tanzub-tree[EN#22] (Sodada decidua); and in the latter the Sháb
Umm Khárgah (Khárjah). I should have preferred a likely looking
Nakb, south of this southern gorge, but the Bedawin, and
especially Abú Khartúm, who had fed his camels and sheep upon the
mountain, overruled me.
The ascent of the outlier occupied three very slow hours, spent
mostly in prospecting and collecting. At nine a.m. we stood 3200
feet above sea-level (aner. 26.79), high enough to make our tents
look like bits of white macadam. What most struck us was the
increased importance of the vegetation, both in quantity and
quality; the result, doubtless, of more abundant dew and rain, as
well as of shade from each passing mist-cloud. The view formed a
startling contrast of fertility and barrenness. At every hundred
yards the growths of the plain became more luxuriant in the rich
humus filling the fissures, and, contrary to the general rule,
the plants, especially the sorrel (Rumex) and the dandelion
(Taraxacum), instead of dwindling, gained in stature. The
strong-smelling Ferula looked like a bush, and the Sarh grew into
a tree: the Ar'ar,[EN#23] a homely hawthorn (hawthorn-leaved
Rhus), whose appearance was a surprise, equalled the Cratgus of
Syria; and the upper heights must have been a forest of fine
junipers (Habíbah = Juniperus Phnicea), with trunks thick as a
man's body. The guides spoke of wild figs, but we failed to find
them. Our chasseurs, who had their guns, eagerly conned over the
traces of ibex and hyenas, and the earths, as well as the large
round footprints, of un léopard; but none of the larger animals
were seen. The Bedawi matchlock has made them wary; chance might
give a shot the first day: on the other hand, skill might be
baffled for a month or two--I passed six weeks upon the
Anti-Libanus before seeing a bear. The noble Shinnár-partridge
again appeared; an eagle's feather lay on the ground; two white
papillons and one yellow butterfly reminded me of the Camarones
Mountain; the wild bee and the ladybird-like Ba'úzah stuck to us
as though they loved us; and we were pestered by the attentions
of the common fly. The Egyptian symbol for "Paul Pry" is supposed
to denote an abundance of organic matter: it musters strong
throughout Midian, even in the dreariest wastes; and it
accompanies us everywhere, whole swarms riding upon our backs.
The only semblance of climbing was over the crest of brown,
burnished, and quartzless traps. Even there the hands were hardly
required, although our poor feet regretted the want of
Spartelles.[EN#24] Here the track debouched upon an inverted
arch, with a hill, or rather a tall and knobby outcrop of rock,
on either flank of the keystone. The inland or eastward view was
a map of the region over which we had travelled; a panorama of
little chains mostly running parallel with the great range, and
separated from it by Wadys, lateral, oblique, and perpendicular.
Of these torrent-beds some were yellow, others pink, and others
faint sickly green with decomposed trap; whilst all bore a fair
growth of thorn-trees--Acacias and Mimosas. High over and beyond
the monarch of the Shafah Mountains, Jebel Sahhárah, whose blue
poll shows far out at sea, ran the red levels of the Hismá,
backed at a greater elevation by the black-blue Harrah. The whole
Tihámah range, now so familiar to us, assumed a novel expression.
The staple material proved to be blocks and crests of granite,
protruding from the younger plutonics, which enfolded and
enveloped their bases and backs. The one exception was the dwarf
Umm Jedayl, a heap composed only of grey granite. The Jebel
Kh'shabríyyah in the Dibbagh block attracted every eye; the head
was supported by a neck swathed as with an old-fashioned cravat.
The summit of the outlier is tolerably level, and here the
shepherds had built small hollow piles of dry stone, in which
their newly yeaned lambs are sheltered from the rude blasts. The
view westwards, or towards the sea, which is not seen, almost
justifies by its peculiarity the wild traditions of built wells,
of a "moaning mountain," and of furnaces upon the loftiest
slopes: it is notable that the higher we went, the less we heard
of these features, which at last vanished into thin air. Our
platform is, as I suspected, cut off from the higher plane by a
dividing gorge; but the depth is only three hundred feet, and to
the south it is bridged by a connecting ridge. Beyond it rises
the great mask of granite forming the apex, a bonier skeleton
than any before seen. Down the northern sheet-rocks trickled a
thin stream that caught the sun's eye; thus the ravine is well
supplied with water in two places. South of it rises a tempting
Col, with a slope apparently easy, separating a dull mass of
granite on the right from the peculiar formation to the left. The
latter is a dome of smooth, polished, and slippery grey granite,
evidently unpleasant climbing; and from its landward slope rise
abrupt, as if hand-built, two isolated gigantic "Pins," which can
hardly measure less than four hundred feet in stature. They are
the remains of a sharp granitic comb whose apex was once the
"Parrot's Beak." The mass, formerly mammilated, has been broken
and denticulated by the destruction of softer strata. Already the
lower crest, bounding the Sha'b Umm Khárgah, shows perpendicular
fissures which, when these huge columns shall be gnawed away by
the tooth of Time, will form a new range of pillars for the
benefit of those ascending the Shárr, let us say in about A.D.
10,000. Such are the "Pins" which name the mountain; and which,
concealed from the coast, make so curious a show to the north,
south, and east of this petrified glacier.
After breaking their fast, M.M. Clarke, Lacaze, and Philipin
volunteered to climb the tempting Col. None of them had ever
ascended a mountain, and they duly despised the obstacles offered
by big rocks distance-dwarfed to paving-stones; and of sharp
angles, especially the upper, perspective-blunted to easy slopes.
However, all three did exceeding well: for such a "forlorn hope"
young recruits are better than old soldiers. They set out at
eleven a.m., and lost no time in falling asunder; whilst the
quarrymen, who accompanied them with the water-skins, shirked
work as usual, lagged behind, sat and slept in some snug hollow,
and returned, when dead-tired of slumber, declaring that they had
missed the "Effendis."
M. Philipin took singly the sloping side of the connecting ridge;
and, turning to the right, made straight for the "Pins," below
which was spread a fleck of lean and languid green. The ascent
was comparatively mild, except where it became a sheet of smooth
and slippery granite; but when he reached a clump of large
junipers, his course was arrested by a bergschrund, which divides
this block--evidently a second outlier--from the apex of the
Shárr, the "Dome" and the "Parrot's Beak." It was vain to attempt
a passage of the deep gash, with perpendicular upper walls, and
lower slopes overgrown with vegetation; nor could he advance to
the right and rejoin his companions, who were parted from him by
the precipices on the near side of the Col. Consequently, he beat
a retreat, and returned to us at 2.30 p.m., after three hours and
thirty minutes of exceedingly thirsty work: the air felt brisk
and cool, but the sun shone pitilessly, unveiled by the smallest
scrap of mist. He brought with him an ibex-horn still stained
with blood, and a branch of juniper, straight enough to make an
excellent walking-stick.
The other two struck across the valley, and at once breasted the
couloir leading to the Col, where we had them well in sight. They
found the ascent much "harder on the collar" than they expected:
fortunately the sole of the huge gutter yielded a trickle of
water. The upper part was, to their naive surprise, mere climbing
on all fours; and they reached the summit, visible from our
halting-place, in two hours. Here they also were summarily
stopped by perpendicular rocks on either side, and by the deep
gorge or crevasse, shedding seawards and landwards, upon whose
further side rose the "Parrot's Beak." The time employed would
give about two thousand feet, not including the ascent from the
valley (three hundred feet); and thus their highest point could
hardly be less than 5200 feet. Allowing another thousand for the
apex, which they could not reach,[EN#25] the altitude of the
Shárr would be between 6000 and 6500 feet.
The shadows were beginning to lengthen before the two reappeared,
and the delay caused no small apprehension; the Sayyid showed a
kindly agitation that was quite foreign to his calm and collected
demeanour, when threatened by personal danger. To be benighted
amongst these cruel mountains must be no joke; nor would it have
been possible to send up a tent or even mouth-munition. However,
before the sun had reached the west, they came back triumphant
with the spoils of war. One was a snake (Echis colorata,
Günther), found basking upon the stones near the trickle of
water. It hissed at them, and, when dying, it changed colour,
they declared, like a chameleon--that night saw it safely in the
spirit-tin. They were loaded with juniper boughs, and fortunately
they had not forgotten the berries; the latter establish the
identity of the tree with the common Asiatic species. M. Lacaze
brought back several Alpine plants, a small Helix which he had
found near the summit, and copious scrawls for future
croquis--his studies of the "Pins" and the "Dome" were greatly
admired at Cairo.
Ere the glooms of night had set in, we found ourselves once more
at the tents. Only one man suffered from the ascent, and his
sunstroke was treated in Egyptian fashion. Instead of bleeding
like that terrible, murderous Italian school of Sangrados, the
Fellahs tie a string tightly round the head; and after
sunset--which is considered de rigueur--they fill the ears with
strong brine. According to them the band causes a bunch of veins
to swell in the forehead, and, when pressed hard, it bursts like
a pistol-shot. The cure is evidently effected by the cold
salt-and-water. The evening ended happily with the receipt of a
mail, and with the good news that the Sinnár corvette had been
sent to take the place of El-Mukhbir, the unfortunate. Once more
we felt truly grateful to the Viceroy and the Prince who so
promptly and so considerately had supplied all our wants, and
whose kindness would convert our southern cruise into a holiday
gîte, without the imminent deadly risk of a burst boiler.
We set out in high spirits on the next morning (6.15 a.m., March
17th), riding, still southwards, up the Surr: the stony, broken
surface now showed that we were fast approaching its source.
Beyond the Umm Khárgah gorge on the western bank, rose a tall
head, the Ras el-Rukabíyyah; and beyond it was a ravine, in which
palms and water are said to be found. The opposite side raised
its monotonous curtain of green and red traps, whose several
projections bore the names of Jebel el-Wu'ayrah--the hill behind
our camping-ground--Jebel el-Maín, and Jebel Sháhitah. A little
beyond the latter debouched the Darb el-Kufl ("Road of
Caravans"), alias Darb el-Ashárif ("Road of the Sherifs"), a
winding gap, the old line of the Egyptian pilgrims, by which the
Sulaymáyyán Bedawin still wend their way to Suez. The second
name, perhaps, conserves the tradition of long-past wars waged
between the Descendants of the Apostle and the Beni
Ukbah.[EN#26] The broad mouth was dotted with old graves, with
quartz-capped memorial-cairns, and, here and there, with a block
bearing some tribal mark. The Wady-sole grew a "stinkhorn" held
to be poisonous, and called, from its fetor, "Faswat el-Agúz"
(Cynophallus impudicus): one specimen was found on the tip of an
ibex-horn, and the other had been impaled with a stick. After two
hours and thirty minutes (= seven miles) we sighted the head of
the Wady Surr proper, whose influents drain the southern
Khurayatah or Hismá Pass. Here the amount of green surface, and
the number of birds, especially the blue-rock and the
insect-impaling "butcher," whose nests were in the thin forest of
thorn-trees, argue that water is not far off. The Ras Wady Surr
is a charming halting-place.
Our Arabs worked hard to gain another day. The only tolerable
Pass rounding the southern Shárr was, they declared, the Wady
Aújar, an influent of the Wady Zahakán, near Zibá. The Col
el-Kuwayd, now within a few yards of us, is so terrible that the
unfortunate camels would require, before they could attempt it,
at least twenty-four hours of preparatory rest and rich feeding;
and so forth. However, we pushed them on with flouts and jeers,
and we ourselves followed at eleven a.m.
The Pass proved to be one of the easiest. It began with a gradual
rise up a short broad Wady, separating the southernmost
counterforts of the Shárr from the north end of the Jebel
el-Ghuráb. This "Raven Mountain" is a line of similar but lower
formation, which virtually prolongs the great "Landmark," down
coast. The bottom was dotted with lumps of pure "Marú," washed
from the upper levels. We reached the summit in forty minutes,
and the seaward slope beyond it was a large outcrop of quartz in
situ, that assumed the strangest appearance,--a dull, dead
chalky-white, looking as if heat-altered or mixed with clay. The
rock-ladder leading to the lower Wady Kuwayd, which has an upper
branch of the same name, offered no difficulty to man or beast;
and the aneroid showed its height to be some 470 feet
(28.13--28.50). The caravan, having preceded us, revenged itself
by camping at the nearest pool, distant nineteen and a half
direct geographical miles from our destination.
This day was the first of the Khamsín or, as M. Loufti (?), a
Coptic student, writes it, "Khamasín," from Khama ("warm") and
Sina ("air").[EN#27] The Midianites call it El-Daufún, the hot
blasts, and expect it to blow at intervals for a couple of
months. This scirocco has been modified in Egypt, at least during
the spring, apparently by the planting of trees. About a
quarter-century ago, its regular course was three days: on the
first it set in; the second was its worst; and men knew that it
would exhaust itself on the third. Now it often lasts only a
single day, and even that short period has breaks.
The site of the camp made sleep well-nigh impossible--a bad
preparation for the only long ride of this excursion. Setting off
at dark (4.20 a.m., March 18th), we finished the monotonous Wady
Kuwayd, which mouths upon the rolling ground falling coastwards.
The track then struck to the north-west, across and sometimes
down the network of Wadys that subtends the south-western
Shárr--their names have already been mentioned. As we sighted the
cool green-blue sea, its horizon-line appeared prodigiously
uplifted, as if the Fountains of the great Deep were ready for
another Deluge. I remembered the inevitable expressions of
surprise with which, young Alpinists and ballooners, expecting
the rim of the visible circle to fall away, see it rising around
them in saucer-shape. The cause is simply that which breaks the
stick in water, and which elevates the Sha'rr every
morning--Refraction.
After a march of seven hours (= twenty-two miles), we debouched,
viâ the Wady Hárr, upon our old Sharm, the latter showing, for
the first time since its creation, two war-steamers, with their
"tender," a large Sambúk. The boats did not long keep us waiting;
and we were delighted to tread once more the quarter-deck of the
corvette Sinnár. Captain Ali Bey Shukri's place had been taken by
Captain Hasan-Bey, an Osmanli of Cavala who, having been
forty-eight years in the service, sighed for his pension. He did,
however, everything in his power to make us feel "at home;" and
the evening ended with a fantasia of a more pronounced character
than anything that I had yet seen.[EN#28]
Résumé of the March Through Eastern or Central Midian.
Our journey through Eastern or Central Midian lasted eighteen
days (February 19--March 8), with an excursion of six (March
13--18) to its apex, the mighty Shárr, which I would add to our
exploration of Central Midian. Despite enforced slow marches at
the beginning of the first section, we visited in round numbers,
according to my itinerary, 197 miles: Lieutenant Amir's map gives
a linear length of 222 miles, not including the offsets. The
second part covered fifty-five miles, besides the ascent of the
mountain to a height of about five thousand feet: the mapper also
increased this figure to 59 2/3. Thus the route-line shows a
grand total of 252 to 281 2/3 in direct statute miles. The number
of camels engaged from Shaykhs Alayán and Hasan was sixty-one;
and the hire, according to Mr. Clarke, represented £147 6s. 6d.,
not including the £40 of which we were plundered by the bandit
Ma'ázah. The ascent of the Shárr also cost £40, making a grand
total of £187 6s. 6d.
The march to the Hismá gave us a fair idea of the three main
formations of Madyan, which lie parallel and east of one
another:--1. The sandy and stony maritime region, the foot-hills
of the Gháts, granites and traps with large veins and outcrops of
quartz; and Wadys lined with thick beds of conglomerate. 2. The
Jibál el-Tihámah, the majestic range that bounds the seaboard
inland, with its broad valleys and narrow gorges forming the only
roads. 3. The Jibál el-Shafah, or interior ridge, the "lip" of
North-Western Arabia; in fact, the boundary-wall of the Nejd
plateau.
The main object of this travel was to ascertain the depth from
west to east of the quartz-formations, which had been worked by
the Ancients. I had also hoped to find a virgin region lying
beyond El-Harrah, the volcanic tract subtending the east of the
Hismá, or plateau of New Red Sandstone. We ascertained, by
inquiry, that the former has an extent wholly unsuspected by Dr.
Wallin and by the first Expedition; and that a careful
examination of it is highly desirable. But we were stopped upon
the very threshold of the Hismá by the Ma'ázah, a tribe of
brigands which must be subjected to discipline before the
province of Madyan can be restored to its former status.
This northern portion had been visited by Dr. Wallin; the other
two-thirds of the march lay, I believe, over untrodden ground. We
brought back details concerning the three great parallel Wadys;
the Salmá, the Dámah, that "Arabian Arcadia," and the
Aslah-Aznab. We dug into, and made drawings and plans of, the
two principal ruined cities, Shuwák and Shaghab, which probably
combined to form the classical <Greek>; and of the two less
important sites, El-Khandaki and Umm Ámil.
The roads of this region, and indeed of all Midian, are those of
Iceland without her bogs and snows: for riding considerations we
may divide them into four kinds:--
1. Wady--the Fiumara or Nullah; called by travellers
"winter-brook" and "dry river-bed." It is a channel without
water, formed, probably, by secular cooling and contraction of
the earth's surface, like the fissures which became true streams
in the tropics, and in the higher temperate zones. Its geological
age would be the same as the depressions occupied by the ocean
and the "massive" eruptions forming the mountain-skeleton of the
globe. Both the climate and the vegetation of Midian must have
changed immensely if these huge features, many of them five miles
broad, were ever full of water. In modern days, after the
heaviest rains, a thin thread meanders down a wilderness of bed.
The Wady-formation shows great regularity. Near the mouth its
loose sands are comfortable to camels and distressing to man and
mule. The gravel of the higher section is good riding; the upper
part is often made impassable by large stones and overfalls of
rock; and the head is a mere couloir. Flaked clay or mud show the
thalweg; and the honeycombed ground, always above the line of
highest water, the homes of the ant, beetle, jerboa, lizard, and
(Girdi) rat, will throw even the cautious camel.
2. Ghadír--the basin where rain-water sinks. It is mostly a
shining bald flat of hard yellow clay, as admirable in dry as it
is detestable in wet weather.
3. Majrá--here pronounced "Maghráh"[EN#29]--the divide;
literally, the place of flowing. It is the best ground of all,
especially where the yellow or brown sands are overlaid by hard
gravel, or by a natural metalling of trap and other stones.
4. Wa'r--the broken stony surface, over which camels either
cannot travel, or travel with difficulty: it is the horror of the
Bedawi; and, when he uses the word, it usually means that it
causes man to dismount. It may be of two kinds; either the Majrá
proper ("divide") or the Nakb ("pass"), and the latter may safely
be left to the reader's imagination.
The partial ascent of the mighty Shárr gave an admirable study of
the mode in which the granites have been enfolded and enveloped
by the later eruptions of trap. Nor less curious, also, was it to
remark how, upon this Arabian Alp, vegetation became more
important; increasing, contrary to the general rule, not only in
quantity but in size, and changing from the date and the Daum to
the strong smelling Ferula, the homely hawthorn, and the tall and
balmy juniper-tree. There is game, ibex and leopard, in these
mountains; but the traveller, unless a man of leisure, must not
expect to shoot or even to sight it.