MASCAT. 
199 
desolate places,, are the only vegetable productions 
that can be said in any degree to abound. A few 
almond and tamarind trees are occasionally seen ; 
but nothing can well exceed the repulsive feature of 
desolation which strikes the traveller upon the failure 
of rain, and this happened to be the case at the pe- 
riod of our visit. We were told that there had not been 
a day’s rain for four years, and certainly the scanti- 
ness of vegetation seemed a sufficient voucher for the 
truth of this assurance. The inhabitants were suffer- 
ing severe distress, in consequence of the scarcity of 
water; and the hot winds during the whole of our 
stay were so oppressive as to be at times almost into- 
lerable. 
We found provisions at Mascat reasonable, and 
the meat, poultry, and vegetables, remarkably good ; 
this probably struck us the more forcibly, as the 
day before our arrival we had been reduced to our 
last turkey, which was all but starved to death when 
its throat was cut to make us a curry. For more than 
a week it had been kept alive by being crammed with 
stale fish and mouldy biscuit, the only aliment with 
which it could be supplied ; and as we had scarcely 
any fresh water, the miserable creature was all but 
dead when it was killed. Had we continued at sea 
a couple of days longer, we should have been in a 
wretched condition, as the whole of our provisions 
were exhausted. 
The harbour of Mascat, which is of great extent, is 
deep enough to float the largest vessels ; and even in 
the cove, immediately before the town, several ships 
of war were at anchor while we were there. It is 
