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SOUTHERN ARABIA. [CH.

tion, in one spot, say four degrees, but the
same is used in some parts of India where it
is scarcely sensible, and in the Red Sea,
where it is eight or ten degrees; half a point,
however, in this mode of navigation, is a
trifle. Whilst I was at Socotra, a boat ran

on shore, and was totally lost there, thinking
herself on the African main. An Arab once
brought a compass for one of our officers to
look at, who, after examining it, used the
Arabian word 44 cold” to imply its sluggish­
ness ; the man returned some time afterwards
with a quantity of pepper-corns placed in the
box beneath, for the purpose, as he observed,
of warming it.
During the south-west monsoon, their ves­
sels are either laid up, or employed in the
Arabian and Persian Gulfs.

Barren as is the general aspect of the
mountains which gird the sea-shore, yet fer­
tile valleys occur amidst them. Of this de­
scription is Bakrein, about three miles from
Makullah, a steep glen, overshadowed by
lofty date palms, with a rill of water flowing
along its centre, and forming a chain of pools
from whence the country around is irrigated.