Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/255

Rh At the north-west extremity of the marsh a spur runs out from the western scarp for three miles, and under it is the 'Ain Ghudyan; there is a pool of water, and several wells giving a plentiful supply of good water.

I found the foundations of a rectangular building, about 20 yards square; there were also tracks of ancient lines of wells converging from the hills on to the 'Ain, and an Arab graveyard that has been noted before. I saw no traces of a Roman road.

To the north of 'Ain el Ghudyan the centre of the valley is choked with sand, leaving a passage on either side.

The hills on the east decrease in height, giving place to limestone and sandstone hills, joining a high range in the background called Jebel Serbal; the scarp on the western side continues regularly with no wâdies of importance breaking through; there are several minor valleys. Camp was pitched at the mouth of one of those, called Wâdy Galaita.

Next day I had again to ascend to the top of a prominent point on the western scarp near Wâdy el Beiyaneh, from which a good round of angles were observed; just below the point there appeared to be a small watershed; the water channel from the eastern side comes across the valley and flows to the south down the western side, while the valleys from the hill I was on appeared to me to flow north; it was so late and dark when I got down from the point I was on, that I was not able to examine this point as closely as I should have liked, but my impression was that there is a small depression in the valley here which does not drain south, unless when a considerable flow of water from the north filled the depression, causing the water to overflow.

The western scarp falls away after the high point near Wâdy Beiyaneh, forming low rolling hills with large openings, through one of which the main road turns westward over the lowest portion of the watershed.

Camp was pitched in the centre of the valley, at the mouth of Wâdy Heyirim, four miles south-east of the lowest point of the watershed.

To the south-east of the camp Wâdy Gharandel joins the Wâdy 'Arabah; this valley breaks through a narrow and romantic gorge, and has a good supply of water at 'Ain Gharandel, situated some distance up the valley.

Next day I made an excursion to the west, surveying the low hills and the lowest portion of the watershed, which is on an open plain dividing Wâdy 'Arabah from Wâdy Jerafeh, flowing north from a south-westerly direction after the opening to the low watershed. A low line of cliff's