Mon. Feb. 16 [16 February 1914] We were off at 6.18 and I got a
bearing back to our camp at 8.10. It was 305, therefore we must have
been going at about 125?. I also saw the big hill which is the E. end of
J. 'Irnan. Its name is Dhurru and its bearing was 141. At 8.40 our
forward bearing was 114 and a little to the W. of it was the ta's, Thailah
(116?) which, as I afterwards found, lies a little to the S.W. of the
Gulban. At 8.50 I saw the whole line of the Misma [Misma, Jibal]
(except to the N, they may stretch a little further). The point on which I
had taken my former bearings a dip between two high flat topped
mountains, was now 95. This part of the Misma is called al 'Anjeh. It
must be about 93?-97? or 98?. The lower hills, al Argub, stretched on
to 125?. 'Irnan was 143-162, the Dhurru being 143?. At 9 we changed
our course to 66 and then wound along sand banks till we found
ourselves on the edge of a deep ga'r in which we camped at 11.45.
At 12.20 the camels went off to water and I with them. We got to the
jelib called al Rozah at 1.5. The bar. was 26.6 at the top and 26.8 at
the bottom. There is one well here of very good water. Our well rope
was 21 paces. Further E. there are 3 more wells, water slightly
brackish like Haizan [Bir Hayzan], of the same depth as the Rozah.
We had been in some doubt as to whether the camels wd drink as the
day was windy and cold (when I got back to camp the ther. was 63).
We tried them in camp with water and they drank greedily, therefore
we sent them all down to the Jelib. For unless we find khabari we
shall get no water till we reach 'Awaiseh. We found at the well some
Wadi Sulaiman watering {sheep} black goats and camels. They
said we shd reach Shammar 'uqub bachir. We took near an hour to
water and fill our skins and got back to camp at 3. Sa'id was in these
parts last year buying camels from the Awaji and 'Aida. He was a
fortnight in camp under the Dhurru. He is often 8 or 9 months away
and he reckons to make £T200 by the end, £100 for himself and £100
for his partner in Dam. [Dimashq (Damascus, Esh Sham, Damas)]
Muhammad's father Sa'id al Ma'rawi was the first to begin this trade
with Nejd [Najd]. He was several years at Jof [Jawf, Al (Al Jauf)] as a
merchant. This was in the time of Met'ab ibn al Rashid. At that time no
other Damascenes dared to traffic in this country. M. al M. has been
into the Qasun, but not Sa'id, because, he says, the people are
wuhush. M al M used to come twice a year to Nejd, selling goods in
the spring and buying camels in the summer. But now the country is
much less safe and the trade therefore much more risky. He wd not
put his son to it, but he trained up Sa'id. Sometimes in the summer
Sa'id buys from the Sukhur at and about Ziza [Jiza]. This is much
more convenient of course, but not so profitable because of the
competition of other Damascene merchants.