Z o o l o g y .
Mineralogy.
Natural Cu-
rioüüeb.
OiQ jfhtè, a fmall panther. T h e .tigerJfee.ms utterly unknown : arid;, the
lion only appears heyond The Euphrates. Among the birds may be
■ named the' pheafant, common in the woods of; Yemen, as th e . grey
partridge is in the plains ; while the oflrich is no ftrangeifoin the
deferts. The birds of prey are eagles, vultures, .;faiepns', and. fparrow-
hawks. . A bird o f the ;thru(h kind, venerated ;becaufe it.!.deft.ro.ys the
lbcufts, is thought to come annually from Corafan. Land. tortpifes
abound; and are eaten by the Chriftians in Lent. A little {lender
ferpent, called baetan, fpotted with black- and white, is of a nature re-
rnarkably poifonou's, the bite being inftant death. The locuft is too
numerous; - and the natives efteem the red as a fat and juicy food, and
view it with no more averfion than fhrimps, or prawns are beheld
by ilk
The mineralogy of Arabia is of fmall importance^ Haying, no
native gold, the people are foil addicted fen th#drfatuaii®n ^.ialehymy/
Noe is filver found, except mingled, as ufüal, in the lead mines, of
Omon.—There are feme mines of iron in the diftriCt ©fHSaade, in the
N. of Yemen; but the metal is brittle. As mofto£Tfoö;n©foé)vegetable
products of Arabia the Happy are now known, to have heem imparted
from Hindeftan, fo the beft pree ions ftones are from the fame quarter.
Tfaofe agates containing extraneous fubftances, wMeh^ ffiöm fbe town
are called Mocha-ftones, are brought from Surat, which alfo-Tends
great quantities to China/ The beft cameHans alfo; omherföóms isfoe
gulf of Cambay. But Arabia produces onyxes in the? province .)>f
Yemen; and the brown ftone found near Damar feems. a fardonyx>
Roek fait appears near Loheia. Niebuhr alfo obfervedtin Ajemen ipèn-
tagonal pillars of bafalt; with blueilh alabafter, felenite, and various
fpars. Not one of the gems appears to be produced in Arabia. Near
Hamada, in a ' diftrict of Yemen, called Kaukeban, there is a warm
fpring of mineral water.
Several of thofe uncommon appearances which : geographers ftyle
natural curiolities may, no doubt, be found in this extenfive country,
when more thoroughly explored. Niebuhr mentions th at1 feveral
| Niebuhr,. 125. He here remarks that the Turks have mines in the country of tDiarbekr arid
p | Sivas. ' .
>. fprings,
fprings, which in other countries would become rivulets,' here flow for Natural
a Ihort fpace, and then, fink into an unknown fubtferranean, courfc. "tVes! "
Amidft the deficiency of water, it is not furprifingL that the grand re-'
fervour near the ancient city of March, though in a fmall part a work
of art,' was regarded as a fingi%-p: exertion of nature.6 Mareb is foil
the chief town of the provincc-of jo f , about', feventy-five B. miles N. E.
from Sana,, containing?,-about three hundred mean houfes, with a wall
and three-gates, £ In an adj acent;vale, about twenty B. miles in length,
were^united fix orfjfoven rivulets, rutmipgj.frora, the weft and -from the
forithy^partly from "Yemen; and’ fome faid to be perennial ftreams full
‘■’©Jififti. The jtwo chains of mountains, intlofing this vale, approach, fo
near'at tHe’eaft fetid that'the fpace'might fie walked' riverain- five or fix
min®tpsrw.Qr wasiabout a quarter'qf a mile, ' This opening being (hut by
& thick wall the-prater was retained, and imparted particular advantages
tfoagriculture.But the wall, conftruCted of large maffes of hewn ftone,
to the-height of forty or fifty feet, was negledted after the fall of the
Sabean kingdom; arid burft in the middle, leaving only the ruins on
bofh*Jfides, fo'that the water is now loft in the defert on the N. of-
Hadramauf.
B e s i d e s fiweral illes of little confequenee in the Arabian gulf, there Isles,
are two iflands which deferve particular notice. Socotra, about 2 40 B. Socotra,
milesfrom the fouthern coaft of Arabia, appears in all ages to have belonged
to that country, and to have been celebrated for the production
of aloes, foil efteemed fuperior to any other. Niebuhr fays that it belongs
to the Sheik of Kefchin, a town of Hadramaut," as it did when the
Portuguefe made ‘difeoveries in this quarter; and the author of the
Periplus obferves that it was fubjeCt to the country which produced in-
cenfe,. that is Hadramaut. The inhabitants are clearly of Arabian extract.
* There are two bays, and fome fecure harbours; and the ifle is
alfo faid to produce frankincenfe, while ambergris and coral are. found
in the neighbouring Teas. The ifle of Bahrin is in the Perfian gulf, Bahrin.
near the Arabian coaft, and remarkable for the great pearl fifhery in its
neighbourhood; but the revenue thence arifing to the Sheik of Bu-
-- * Niebuhr, 240.
fheer