The dew is very heavy on the littoral, and suffices to keep the bush grazing in good condition, though it is insufficient to raise the short grass, which sprouts after rain, and which forms the principal pasture for sheep.
Towns or Villages.There are nowadays no towns or villages in the Atbai. The Arabs live by families in groups of tents made of dom-palm matting. These, of course, move according as it suits them.
Deraheib.There are, however, throughout this district, the remains of quite large stone-built villages, formerly inhabited by the miners of the ancients. Those at Deraheib are particularly striking. Deraheib (Der — castle, aheib — beautiful) was evidently at one time the seat of a colony of miners. On the right bank of the wadi are the broken walls of 500 or more houses, arranged in streets. The castle, a large square building, stands under the hills on the left bank. The pointed arches of the castle and portions of some of the houses are set in lime. The majority of buildings, however, are constructed of stone and mud.
Vegetation.The vegetation, generally, is rare and scanty, though in some of the large wadis, even west of the watershed, it is surprisingly luxuriant. Perhaps the Wadi Alagi, with its fine sayal and heglig and abundant marakh, arak and other green trees, is the most striking instance. West of the Gabgaba, and immediately east of it, selem is chiefly met with, but as one ascends the wadis one comes on sayal and the rare palm, “Medemia argun.”
The latter is especially numerous in the Wadis Abaraga and Terfaui, and is found in many other khors in the neighbourhood, especially in those descending from J. Rafit to the Gabgaba.
No adult specimens were noticed east of the Wadi Abaraga, though there are many young plants trying to sprout at Abu Tabag.
This palm is largely used for mat-making, and the Arabs are fully alive to the advantage of preserving it, as well as other trees.
The grazing is not confined to the actual beds of the wadis. There are many flat or depressed places where, for some months after good rain, excellent grazing is found for camels, sheep, and goats.
The rainfall, however, is so uncertain that it is impossible to rely on finding grazing at any particular place even if it has been found there in previous years.
Vegetation east of watershed.The vegetation along the wadis flowing towards the sea varies considerably from that found along those emptying into the Nile. Large trees, such as sayal, selem, heglig and tundub are found along the former, as well as a bush called “adlib,” which camels are extremely fond of, “arad,” an acacia, growing on the tops of the granite hills that border the littoral, is used by the Arabs to produce the red dye for the leather of sword scabbards, etc. The medicinal qualities of the small undergrowth and grasses of the eastern Atbai are considered by the Arabs far more efficacious than those of the west. A species of gum tree, similar to the “Ficus elastica,” but with a smaller leaf, exists on the hills of the eastern Atbai; it is known by the Arabs as “gemmeiza.”