Page 179 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)
P. 179
140 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [ciI.
last are smaller than those brought from the
Eastern Islands, but in richness of flavour,
are fully equal to them. The figs {Ficus
Carica of Linnaeus) taste sweet and plea
sant, but are very small, being inferior both
in size and flavour to those brought from
Turkey. They are dried and sold in large
quantities in all the towns. A small quan
tity of coffee is grown; but owing, in all pro
bability, to the little care bestowed on its
culture, it is considered to be of inferior qua
lity to that brought from Yemen. In addi
tion to these, all the fruits and grain common
to the plains below, are produced in large
quantities. Maskat and other ports on
the sea-coast of Om<in, together with Ras-el-
Khaimah, Sharga, and many others on the
southern shores of the Persian Gulf, receive
their supplies from this range.
By a tried thermometer, I found that water
boiled at Shirazi at 200|°, which gives an
altitude of about six thousand one hundred
and eighty-seven feet. This I ascertained
by several other observations to be from
eight hundred to one thousand feet below the
level of the summit of the greater part of the