Page 245 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879 571

THIS ISLANDS OF BAIlltEIN. 191

the northern shore to the north-east, being abundantly
supplied with water, for which, indeed, Bahrein is famous.
The Arabs imagine these and other springs on the main­
land to bo an underground stream from the Euphrates,
tho “ Euphraten {lumen per quoddam Arabia) emergero
putant ” of Pliny, vi. 159. The principal springs arc tho
Gassari on tho road from Manameh to tho Bil&d-i-Kadim ;
tho Uinm-i-Shaoom, a milo to the eastward of Mamimch ;
tho Abu Geidan, in tho Bilad-i-Kadim ; and the Adari,
which last supplies many miles of date-groves through a
canal of ancient workmanship, the stone of which in somo
places is falling in, but which still forms a perfect river of
fast-running water, about 10 feet broad by two in depth.
The spring itself is from 30 to 35 feet deep, and rises so
strongly that a diver is forced upwards on nearing the bottom.1
The water, where it rises from this deep spring, whose basin
artificially banked is about 22 yards broad by 40 long, is
as clear as costal, with a slightly green tint. It holds a
shoal or two of large fish and many water tortoises. It is
not perfectly sweet, and this applies to nearly all the wells,
tho best drinking water being brought on camels from tho
wells of tho Umm Ifocfih and llanaini,2 said to be 20
fathoms deep, in the hills of It i fa a. The water is conducted
from these various wells by ordinary unbanked channels,
the larger of which have now como to look like natural
streams.
On nearing .the coast, white dusty ground—tho relic,
probably, of former habitations—intrudes everywhere; and
mighty mounds bare of vegetation tower above the palm
groves. Mass upon mass, mound upon mound, they stretch
on in endless chains all round tho slope that falls from
tho cliffs to tho sea, clinging more particularly, perhaps,
to tho higher ground, but being found • in separato
clusters near tho coast itself. The parent group seems to
be that at Ali, a modern village, but other largo ones arc

1 I lmd somo poarl divers •with mo who went down and walkod about on tho
bottom; thoy thou looked liko pigmies about a foot high. ,
2 Names of two villages a jmlo or so apart on tho top of tho circlo of culls.