produces little vegetation; but it is resorted to by the Bedouin in
the spring and summer months when the air is always fresh and cool. In
winter it is cold and snow often lies for some time.

Hejaz.

Hejaz, if we except the Taif district in the south, which is properly
a part of the Yemen plateau, forms a well-marked physical division,
lying on the western slope of the peninsula, where that slope is at
its widest, between the Harra and the Red Sea. A high range of granite
hills, known as the Tehama range, the highest point of which, J. Shar,
in Midian, exceeds 6500 ft., divides it longitudinally into a narrow
littoral and a broader upland zone 2000 or 3000 ft. above the sea.
Both are generally bare and unproductive, the uplands, however,
contain the fertile valleys of Khaibar and Medina, draining to the
Wadi Hamd, the principal river system of western Arabia; and the Wadi
Jadid or Es Safra, rising in the Harra between Medina and Es Safina,
which contain several settlements, of which the principal produce is
dates. The quartz reefs which crop out in the granite ranges of the
Tehama contain traces of gold. These and the ancient copper workings
were investigated by Burton in 1877. The richer veins had evidently
been long ago worked out, and nothing of sufficient value to justify
further outlay was discovered. The coast-line is fringed with small
islets and shoals and reefs, which make navigation dangerous. The only
ports of importance are Yambu and Jidda, which serve respectively
Medina and Mecca; they depend entirely on the pilgrim traffic to the
holy cities, without which they could not exist.

Nejd.

The great central province of Nejd occupies all inner Arabia between
the Nafud and the southern desert. Its northern part forms the basin
of the Wadi Rumma, which, rising in the Khaibar harra, runs
north-eastward across the whole width of Nejd, till it is lost in the
sands of the eastern Nafud, north of Aneza. The greater portion of
this region is an open steppe, sandy in places and in others dotted
with low volcanic hills, but with occasional ground water and in
favourable seasons furnishing support for a considerable pastoral
population. Its elevation varies from about 5000 ft. in the west to
2500 ft. in the east. In Jebel Shammar, Kasim and Wushm, where the
water in the wadi beds rises nearly to the ground level, numerous
fertile oases