Page 276 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XV.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 237

aspect. The only beach met with is at the
extremity of the coves, where a small portion

of sand or shing, composed of broken coral
or shells, is occasionally found, thrown up by

the force of the wind and waves. From the
main ridge of mountains, the average height
of which is about two thousand five hundred

feet, nearly midway between the eastern
and western shore of the promontory, seve­

ral lateral valleys extend towards the sea.
Bireimah may be approached from Sehinas
by two of these, Wadi Kh6r and Wadi Uttar.

From Fidgira another road leads across
the ridge to Sharga, which is two and a half

days distant. A few date-groves are reared
near the banks of the rivulets, which wind
along their beds ; but little else is cultivated,

and the line of oases, extending from Obri
to Bireimah, forms the boundary of the cul­

tivation in that part of Oman. From thence
to the shores of the Persian Gulf the whole
is an arid and sandy waste. Two days’ jour­

ney from Sehinas, a few miles to the south­
ward of Wadi Uttar, on the road to Bireimah,

there is a collection of thirty hamlets, called