"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٠] (٨٦٢/٢٢٥)

144 COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF
both towns is from artesian wells. The climate, though hot and
humid in summer, is more pleasant than that of any other port on the
Arabian side of the Persian Gulf.
A causeway with motor-road links Manama and Muharraq, ii
miles north-east; it does not obstruct the shallow boat-channel con
necting Bahrein harbour with the north-west end of Khor Kaliya; a
swing-bridge was completed in 1941. Before the causeway was built
the people waded across or were carried by donkeys.
Khor Kaliya is important as a British naval base and as a station
on the British Overseas Airways Corporation route to India and
Australia. The naval base was recently transferred from Henjam
island and the base there handed over to Persia; warships usually
anchor in the west of the Khor, the centre being obstructed by an
extensive shoal; there is a good site for stores and recreation on the
shore. The flying-boat anchorage is in the north-west of the Khor.
There is an excellent natural aircraft landing-ground of hard dry
sand on Muharraq island to the north.
The total population of the Bahrein islands is about 120,000, of
whom more than a third live in the two towns of Manama and
Muharraq, and most of the others along the cultivated north coast of
Bahrein island (the population of Bahrein island was 89,970 in 1941).
The people are mainly occupied in agriculture, trading, pearl fishing
and other industries, and as employees of the Bahrein Petroleum
Company. The chief crops, grown by irrigation from the freshwater
springs, are dates, citrus-fruits, and lucerne. Dairy cattle are fed on
dried fish. Bahrein is the marketing-centre of the famous pearl
fishing industry of the Persian Gulf, which dates back to classical
times and is mentioned by Strabo, and about 250 boats from Bahrein
itself take part during the four summer months; there is a side
industry in mother-of-pearl. Oil was discovered in 1932, and offsets
the effects of depression in the pearl trade since the manufacture of
artificial pearls; it is exploited and refined by the Bahrein Petroleum
Company, a British company owned by the California Arabian
Standard Oil Company and the Texas Corporation; there are about
sixty wells in the central depression and on Jabal Dukhan; the large
refinery is north-east of the depression and is being expanded; the
oil is loaded for export at an oil wharf in deep water in Sitra anchorage,
connected by a pipe with tanks on Sitra island. A network of all-
weather roads covers the oilfield area. Other industries include boat
building, making sailcloth and reed mats; white donkeys are not
bred now. Most of the trade of the Hasa passes through Bahrein, the