384 Miscellanies. 



uninteresting country, to the camp of the Beni Bu Ali Bedouins, in 

 lat. 22° 3' N. It was here that the detachment of troops under 

 Captain Thomson, who, in the year 1820, in company with the army 

 of the Imam of Muskat, had marched against this tribe, suffered so 

 severely, and in consequence of which the following year Sir Lionel 

 Smith was dispatched against them and destroyed them.* Since 

 that time no European had visited this tribe, and I was not a little 

 surprised at their truly kind and hospitable reception of me ; every 

 thing they could offer was at my service, and in speaking of the 

 transaction of 1821, the wives of the Sheik said, ' We have fought — 

 you have made us every compensation for those who fell, and we 

 should now be friends.' 



" Dec. 6. I continued my journey to the S. S. W., forty-five miles 

 over the desert, and the following day the same distance W. S. W., 

 to some wells, and thence returned to the tents of Beni Bu Ali. 



'^Dec. 10. Journeyed forty two miles in a north-westerly dii^ection, 

 through the shallow valley of Wadi Butha, as far as Bedia, a district 

 comprising seven small oases, which are fertile and beautiful past 

 expectation. 



"Dec. 13. Over the same country to Ibrah, an old town contain- 

 ing several handsome houses, with a population of about 700 per- 

 sons, and thence continuing by the same shallow valley to Semmed, 

 in lat. 22° 50' N., an extensive oasis, with about 800 inhabitants ', 

 in its vicinity is a large fort, garrisoned by the Imam's troops — hence, 

 in a W. S. W. direction, to Minna, an old town in a fertile and rich 

 oasis, open fields beautifully cultivated, groves of almond, citron, 

 and orange trees, so luxuriant that we exclaimed with astonishment, 

 ' Is this Arabia, that has been represented as a desert ?' fields of corn 

 and sugar cane extended for miles before us, streams of water flow- 

 ing in all directions, and the cheerful and contented appearance of 

 the Arabs proved that all was plenty. 



" Dec. 23. I reached Neswah, in lat. 22° 50' N., which is the 

 largest and most populous of all the oases ; here we left our camels 

 and procured asses to ascend the rocky heights of Jebel Akdar, or 

 Green Mountain, which here extends, in an east and west direction, 

 a distance of more than thirty miles. I ascended the range, which 

 is of limestone, and reaches 6000 feet above the sea, and passed 

 some days on the high table land; the surface is bare, but the ravines 



•'■ See Fraser's Journey to Khorasan, Appendix A. 



