11 



tliickly wooded and well watered. The huge masses of roci 

 iu its dry watercourse fully attested to the strength of the 

 current precipitated down it after heavy rain. A spring and 

 a lake occur at its mouth, and on the latter widgeon and other 

 wild ducks were shot by the officers of the Survey. The country 

 of Jezzar, 120 miles inland, was described by the Arabs as 

 abounding in the necessaries of life, and as yielding rich pasture 

 for their flocks. 



There are a number of islands, in the Bay of Khurya 

 Murya, which were ceded to G-reat Britain by the Iraaum of 

 Maskat. One of them, known as Jebeliyah, has been described 

 by Dr. Hulton ^ as perfectly barren, but the resort of sea-birds, 

 and particularly of a gannet which, when he and his companions 

 first landed, seemed inclined to dispute the ground with them. 

 Lieut. Whish \ writing about twenty years later, also calls the 

 bird a gannet and states that it was extremely numerous and 

 very noisy. It lays two eggs of a light blue tint upon the bare 

 ground, merely clearing away the larger stones and collecting 

 together a quantity of small gravel. The obstinacy with which 

 the gannets defended their nests made them an easy prey. In 

 consequence of their presence, the island was covered with large 

 deposits of guano, which were estimated, in 1858, at 200,000 tons ^ 

 "Wild cats were said to be seen sometimes on the rocks, and rats 

 existed in great hordes, supposed to have been introduced by the 

 wreck of some native vessel, as they were exactly like the 

 common rat. Harmless snakes, described as whip-snakes, 

 scorpions and centipeds were common '- 



Prom Eas Therrar, in Khurya Murya Bay, to Eas Jezirah, 

 170 miles to the east, the land subsides from 800 to 480 ft., 

 but retains, generally, the appearance of a tableland, broken up 

 however at Eaa Shuamiyah by outbursts of igneous rocks. The 

 whole of this part of the coast-line, with the exception of the 

 sandy bay immediately to the west of Cape Jezirah, consists of 

 a light-brown, barren, arid clifE of limestone rock, without a tree 

 or even a mound to vary its outline ; but, opposite to the small 



' Journ. Koy. Greogr. Soc. xi. 1841, pp. 156-164 and map. 

 ^ Trans. Bombay Geogr. Soc. XT. 1860, pp. xxxvii to xl, with two plates. 

 ' Buist (G.), Proe. Roy. Geogr. Soo. iv. 1859-60, pp. 50-57. In 1858 this 

 island was leased by Government, for its guano, to a Liverpool firm of merchants. 

 * Buist (G.), loo. oit. 



