the Moabite stone among the most valuable of Semitic
inscriptions. From Hail Huber followed nearly in Doughty's track to
Aneza and thence across central Nejd to Mecca and Jidda, where he
despatched his notes and copies of inscriptions. A month later, in July
1884, he was murdered by his guides a few marches north of Jidda, on his
way back to Hail.

One other traveller visited Hail during the lifetime of the amir
Mahommed--Baron E. Nolde--who arrived there in 1893, not long after the
amir had by his victory over the combined forces of Riad and Kasim
brought the whole of Nejd under his dominion. Nolde crossed the Nafud to
Haiyania by a more direct track than that from Shakik to Jubba. The amir
was away from his capital settling the affairs of his newly acquired
territory; Nolde therefore, after a short halt at Hail, journeyed on to
Ibn Rashid's camp somewhere in the neighbourhood of Shakra. Here he was
on new ground, but unfortunately he gives little or no description of
his route thither, or of his journey northwards by the Persian pilgrim
road, already traversed by Huber in 1881. His narrative thus, while
containing much of general interest on the climate and on the animal
life of northern Arabia, its horses and camels in particular, adds
little to those of his predecessors as regards topographical detail.

General results of exploration.

If the journeys detailed above be traced on the map they will be found
to cover the northern half of the peninsula above the line Mecca-Hofuf,
with a network of routes, which, though sometimes separated by wide
intervals, are still close enough to ensure that no important
geographical feature can have been overlooked, especially in a country
whose general character varies so little over wide areas. In the
southern half, on the other hand, except in Nejran and Jauf, no European
traveller has penetrated 100 m. in a direct line from the coast. The
vast extent of the Dahna, or great southern desert, covering perhaps
250,000 sq. m., accounts for about a third of this area, but some of the
most favoured districts in Arabia--Asir and northern Yemen--remain
unexplored, and the hydrography of the Dawasir basin offers some
interesting problems, while a great field remains for the archaeologist
in the seat of the old Sabaean kingdom from Jauf to the Hadramut valley.

Sinai Peninsula.

_Topographical Details._--Beginning from the north-west, the Sinai
peninsula belongs to Egyp