Page 74 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

HI.] TRAVELS IN OJMaN. 35

wards, and, after winding our way through

several lanes, with large trees on either side,
overhanging the path, we entered an exten­

sive build ins; erected for the use of travellers.
The night air being cold, iny guides soon

prepared a fire, and a meal of rice and fish,

of which we all partook most heartily. In
the course of my several journeys I have
been never solicitous or particular about my

place of repose, and I was much amused this

night at the remarks of the Bedowins, when,
instead of drawing near to the fire, as they

were all anxiously doing, they saw me wrap
myself up in a boat cloak, and lie down on a

chinammed platform raised in the open air in
the garden.

Early this morning, I visited the spring
which was the object of my journey. The

water gushes with much violence from an
aperture at the base of a hill of clay iron­

stone. Veins of a crystallized quartz run in
a diagonal direction through the rock, and

large fragments have been dislodged from it.
Some faint indications of copper might be

distinguished between the inner layers, but

no traces of volcanic action were anywhere
d 2