Page 281 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

MUSK AT. 239

almost nothing: woollen cloths, useful to Arabs only, for tents and
cloaks ; some cottons of a good quality, used only by Arabs ; silks, also
used by Arabs; leather, but of poor quality ; iron, chiefly arms. Oman
cannot be said to have an export trade in manufactures; most things
now required are imported. Yet in Oman, formerly, there existed
considerable manufactories of silks, and mines were also worked in
various places. I have seen old mines in several places, but the Arabs
had not even any tradition regarding them. I always got the constant
answer of the Arab, touching anything of which he knows nothing (and
indeed they do know but very little, and care to know but little),—
Allah Aecm hadha row shugne fil Aeiom ul KafFar! (God knows;
it was some affair or business in the days of the unbelievers!)
IX.—As to routes, a man may take the one which pleases him,—at
one time of the year one way, at another some
Routes, and Means of 0t|ier route, as he can find water. Oman can be
Communication by Laud
and Water. approached in many places, and entered from
the sea; from the interior, from the Hadlur al
Maut, the Hajaz, or from Nujd ; and the Imautn’s African dominions
are all open to the sea. The natural resources are incalculable : the
sugar grown in Zanzibar is as fine as any in the world, but with Arabs
the natural resources of a country will never be developed. The cloves
answer the Arab well, because they grow with so little care ; the
Arabs here are all growing rich from the sale of their cloves.

X.—The climate of Oman in the interior is said to be good, but the
Climate, and Average coast is very unhealthy for four months in the
Range of the Thermo­ year : the heat is truly terrible in April, May,
meter.
June, and July. In and about Muskat is
supposed to be the greatest heat in the world.
In the Imanm’s African possessions, the climate is certainly un­
healthy for Europeans, on the coast, and in the adjacent islands. The
highlands in the interior are supposed to be healthy, but they have not as
ye.t been tried. The range of the thermometer in Oman I do not know,
nor of the range of it in Africa, except at Zanzibar, where it is from 71°
to 90°.
XI. —What it may be in Arabia I know not, but little rain falls. On
the Coast of Africa the fall of rain is very great,
Average Annual Fall of
Rain. but we have no means of ascertaining it: at
Zanzibar it is about from S4 to 100 inches.
XII. —I do not know ; there is no means of estimating it, and I and
others have often tried to do so: we have not
Estimated Population.
sufficient knowledge of the country, and to get
information from the Arabs is out of the question.

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