Page 422 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXIII.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. .383

pains to obtain an account as accurate as
possible. Southern Oman is but thinly peo­
pled, for the whole number, including women

and children, does not exceed fifty thousand ;
but the northern districts are far more popu­

lous, and probably contain, including Maskat
and Matarah, two hundred and fifty thousand
souls, which I am convinced is rather within

than above the mark.
The Batna coast, throughout its whole

length, is thickly studded with towns and
villages; and amidst the valleys, wherever
the ground affords a sufficient space for till­

age, are found hamlets of ten or twenty houses
each.

With the exception of Rostak, which is
extensive and well built, there are no towns
of any extent in the interior. Many of those

which from native information have figured
in our maps as large cities, and are even

classed by Niebuhr as principalities, do not
now rise into more importance than villages
or hamlets. The ruins of houses, and the

remains of former embankments, denote how­
ever both a superior population and more

extensive cultivation ; but, wherever irrigation