DESCRIPTION OF ARABU. 61 



Persian Gulf, it extends from the middle of February 

 to the middle of April. Thus it would seem that 

 the rains make the tour of the peninsula every sea- 

 son according to the prevalence of the winds. They 

 often faU, however, in storms rather than showers ; 

 and, instead of irrigating the ground, are drunk up 

 by the thirsty sands, or collected in sudden pools. 

 In the valleys, near Taif, Burckhardt was overtaken 

 by a tempest of thunder, hail, and rain, which cov- 

 ered Wady Noman three feet deep ; innumerable 

 cascades immediately tumbled from the sides of the 

 hills, and the inundation became general, so as to 

 render travelling for a time impossible. The histo- 

 rians of Mecca record various instances in which 

 that tOAvn was completely deluged. In 162G a tor- 

 rent rushed so rapidly into the plain that five hun- 

 dred of the inhabitants were drowned; the great 

 mosque was filled; three sides of it were swept 

 away ; and every human being within it perished. 

 There appears to be no general or fixed law by which 

 these periodical rains are determined ; and it is only 

 the skirts, as it were, of the Arabian peninsula that 

 enjoy this necessary provision of nature for sustain- 

 ing the productive powers of the earth. The same 

 latitudes in Asia and Africa present the same pecu- 

 liarities. Persia, except where it is watered by the 

 Euphrates and the Indus, exhibits all that frightful 

 sterility which has been depicted by the historians 

 of Alexander in recording the perils and sufferings 

 of his army while traversing Gedrosia (Mekran). 

 But for the Nile, Egypt were a desert ; and if Bar- 

 bary is more fertile than Sahara, it is because the 

 Atlas range attracts the moisture of the clouds. 



Perhaps the most singular feature in the Arabian 

 continent is its entire want of rivers or perennial 

 streams. This deficiency has indeed been gene- 

 rously supplied by the industiy of geographers, who 

 have traced winding lines in various directions, ter- 

 minating, after a long course, on the margin of the 



Vol. 1— F 



