Page 423 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

384 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [cH.

ceases, the course of a few seasons converts
the land, however fertile it may have pre­
viously been, into a desert.

All the towns, &c. are now situated either

within or contiguous to an oasis; and these,
with their inhabitants, have been so fully
described in the course of this work, that it

would neither amuse nor interest the reader
were T to recur to them ; but, in order to bring

any peculiarity or additional information as
much as possible into one focus, I have added
on the face of the map a brief description of

each.

The direction of my several journeys is also
pointed out in the map. In order to show
the degree of confidence to which this may

be entitled, it is necessary I should state that
all the principal towns, villages, and oases,

are fixed from actual observation ; and, with
the exception of Rostak, which is placed in

the position it occupies from compass bear­
ings, and Bireimah, the frontier station of the

Wahhabis, there is no place of importance in
Oman, the geographical site of which has not

been correctly determined. And here I may
be permitted to observe that, although from