Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/357

Rh leading south-west to the town of Bereymah, now a sort of Nejdean colony, where they attain a considerable elevation. They then turn south-east and run in a line parallel to Djebel Akhdar, but at a considerable distance from it: this range assigns the limits of the Dahirah, or inland province. Another chain of mountains, at their first outset mere barren rocks, but soon rising to a great height, originates at the coast near Barka, and follows the sea-line close to the very shore down to Soor; meantime it communicates with Djebel Akhdar by transverse ranges occurring between Barka and Maskat: these form the boundary of the Batinah. Beyond Soor these same hills form a vast loop running round the inner line of the Ras-el-Hadd promontory, till it at last meets the Dahirah to the rear of Djebel Akhdar.

These mountains, especially the coast-range, and the Djebel Akhdar itself, are mainly basalt and granite, with mica, quartz, and spar intermixed. But to the south and east chalk and limestone begin to predominate, and the low hills that follow the coast from Ras-el-Hadd downwards towards Dofar were described to me as being principally of that formation, though some are, if I have rightly understood, basaltic also.

Beyond and behind the Dahirah lies the desert already described. From the heights behind Sharja I could distinguish no break in its reddish waste; but, if my Bedouin informants be correct, there occurs, at a certain distance from the Dahirah, a long low range of white (i. e. limestone) rocks and sand-hills, called by them the Akhaf, and forming a sort of outwork to the ’Oman range. These same hills are mentioned also in a well-known Arab work, the ‘Hamasah’ of Abou-Temmam. Possibly Wadi Djebrin, put down in some maps, though no one in this country could tell me anything about it, may be a valley among or coincident with these same Akhaf.

Such is the general outline of ’Oman—an outline mostly filled up, by fertile and cultivated lands: those lying between the sea and Djebel Akhdar, namely the province of Batinah, are especially rich in produce, except where the rocky coast-line interferes. The vegetation of the Batinah is almost Indian; the cocoa-nut mixes with the date-palms and overtops them—the mango-tree spreads its broad deep shade—the betel-tree and papay adorn the gardens long tropical climbers stretch from bough to bough—and under all runs a meandering network of rivulets, supplied from the inland mountains, or welling up through the level soil, to give a degree of life and verdure such as no other part of Arabia can show. It is, indeed, the garden of the Peninsula. Numerous villages and some considerable towns adorn this province: I will speak of them separately a little further on.

Djebel Akhdar also, with its continuation in Belad Benoo