88 Professor Fournet’s Researches on the 
of those who devote themselves to commerce, are all poor; 
and this region extends over the south-western portion of the 
peninsula, as far as the dry, treeless, stony plains of the 
environs of Aden. It must not, however, be concluded that 
there is an absolute absence of rain, for the two seasons of 
Kharif and Seif are distinctly marked at Hez; we know, 
moreover, that at Mocha the south-west winds, which pre- 
vail from April to August, bring with them some rains dur- 
ing the squalls and gusts. Their rarity in this region seems 
to be caused by the attraction of the clouds to the neigh- 
bouring mountains ; for on the Tehama there are whole days 
during which the sky is constantly serene, while it is raining 
without intermission on the heights. 
The phenomena in question are reproduced, but in an in- 
verse order, on the eastern coast of Arabia, where rains pre- 
vail on the fertile mountains of Oman during the winter mon- 
soon. As in the Nedsjeran, and, probably, as in the whole 
interior of the peninsula, this season, which lasts from the 
commencement of November to the middle of February, has 
received the name of Schitt, and the rains are then suffi- 
ciently abundant to produce impetuous torrents; while, at 
the foot of the mountains, at Mascat as in the Tehama, there 
are hardly seven or eight falls of rain in the course of the 
year. 
It must be evident, therefore, that true deserts are to be 
sought for neither on the eastern nor the western side of 
Arabia; and the same may be said of the southern coast, 
where rains fall in the months of February, March, and 
April, during one of the derangements caused by the mon- 
soons, periods which are always critical, owing to the tem- 
pests to which they give rise. Where, then, shall we seek 
for the deserts? On the vast coast plateau of Mahra? but 
nomadic tribes traverse it in all directions ; steppes are, 
therefore, distinctly characterized: there thus only remains 
for us the central portion of southern Arabia, forming 
what is termed the Great Desert of Ahkof, and comprised 
between Nedsjed, Yemen, and Oman; but this is a ferra 
incognita, in regard to which we possess no other informa- 
tion but the emphatic recitals of the Arabs, to whom the 
