Page 125 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

86 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH.

browsing on the grass which grows beneath
them.

At 4’30, we passed Kamil, and at seven

halted for the night amidst some sand
downs about fifty feet in height. The night

was clear, and the atmosphere of such un­
common purity that, not even in Egypt, do

the stars shine forth with greater brilliancy.
This I observed to be generally the case in

extensive sandy tracts. But why are the
dews so heavy, and the nights so cool on the

Desert? The former are often so copious
that they leave on the ground all the effects

of a smart shower; and however torrid and
parching may be the heat of the day, yet it is

always succeeded by cool, and even cold
nights.

Friday, December Wth. I rose this morning

at an early hour, and scrambled to the sum­
mit of one of the highest of the sand hills, in
order to obtain a view of the surrounding

country. In the bleak and desolate expanse

before me I discerned, as far as the eye could
reach, nothing but hillocks of sand, rolled in

from the Desert like the waves of the sea, until