Page 156 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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ROUTE FROM HOOFOOF TO KATEEF.

r FoUr or fivc miles t0 thc eastward of Iloofoof are the Gibul Garah
rhese hills are destitute of vegetation, of no great height, and are famous
for the natural caves they contain. The one visited was forty paces i„
length, by twenty paces broad ; height about twenty or twenty.five feet
Another cave was stated to be in these hills, of greater length, but not
so broad. The natives resort to these caves in the hotter months of
the year.
Dates appear to be thc chief produce of Lahsa; rice and wheat
are
also cultivated in considerable quantities. Water from
springs is
everywhere extremely abundant, and fruit trees, lucerne, and
vege-
tables thrive in the date groves in a most luxuriant manner.

ROUTE FROM HOOFOOF TO KATEEF.

Distance. Remarks.

Wiles. Furls. First Day's March.
6 0 Hoofoof to Kulabiah ; time two hours.—Pass through some date groves.
The road is good. Kulabiah is a small, walled village, the houses of
which are mostly built of date sticks and mats.
6 6 From Kulabiah to the Munzil; time two and a quarter hours.—Imme­
diately on leaving Kulabiah, you enter the Sandy Desert, which con­
tinues all the way to Kateef. The ground is undulating, aud in some
places very heavy, but practicable for light artillery. At the Munzil
an encam ping ground; found pits in the sand ; the water good. The
water in these pits becomes brackish after a few’ days’ exposure, when
it becomes necessary to dig others.

Second Day's March.
From the Munzil to the Water-pits ; time six and a quarter hours.—Sandy,
18 6
irregular ground for the first five or six miles, when you enter a desert
plain, which continues over firm ground for four or five miles, after whic i
for the next three miles the ground becomes more undulating, and very
heavy here and there. Another plain of six miles in length is no
entered, which ends at the water-pits, where we halted for an hour.
From the Water-pits to the Munzil; time two hours.-Undulatmg ground,
6 0
sand pretty firm. Water appears to be generally obtainable i ^
ground between the sand mounds. Encamped for the mg
water-pits.