Page 349 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

310 TRAVELS IN OMaN.

about two years ago they wholly deserted
their former quarters, and are now only
found in the vicinity of Gambran on the

Persian shore. I have heard it related by
the inhabitants, that about every fifth or sixth

year the fish on the coast are visited by
*
some epidemic, which destroys them in vast

numbers, and many are then thrown up on
the shore. In the running streams there are

numerous small fry, but the natives do not
eat them. The insects and reptiles are
locusts, wasps, bees, tortoises, lizards, scor­

pions, and many others common to India.
A considerable diversity in the geographi­
cal features of the country produces in Oman

a corresponding variation in the climate.
Away from the sea-coast, to the westward of

the mountains, the air is very dry in the cold,
and excessively hot in the warm season ; but

in Batna, the high mountains which retreat
considerably from the coast arrest the pro­
gress of the vapours exhaled and wafted from

the ocean, and it is comparatively cool and
moist. The exuberant vegetation of the

oases reduces the temperature, but the cli­
mate, at the same time, is especially obnox-