'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎578] (669/905)

578
THE SIMOOM.
[CHAP. XXII.
bordering on the shores of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and likewise m
'Oman, as well as some of the places near the shores of the
Red Sea, the climate is widely different; and the inhabitants
experience a clammy heat in summer time, even at night,
which is scarcely supportable to the exhausted frame. At
Heat at Maskat. this period of the year Maskat, perhaps the most trying spot
of the whole, has, amongst the inhabitants, the name 01
Gehennem (Hell), on account of its temperature, which ranges
from 92° 1 to 105°, Fahrenheit, in the month of July; and in
November it reaches 81 J 0 . 2 This city and its immediate envi-
rons are particularly fatal to the European constitution,
although the thermometer is not by any means so high there
as in many healthier places, such as Grane, Hill ah, Shei'kh-
el-Shuyukh, Hit, and Tadmor.
Earthquakes Having a heated atmosphere towards the western and
freqiient. southern limitS) and a m ild if not a cold temperature on the
north-western side, rapid, and occasionally violent atmospheric
changes may naturally be expected ; and the catastrophes
which of late years have visited Aleppo, Damascus, Safet and
other places, show that terrible earthquakes are still as com
mon in these parts of the world as they were in ancient times.
These calamities, according to observations made by the inha
bitants, sweep onward in a western direction with such velo
city that it is difficult to note the brief interval between the
shock felt at one place and that at another,
storms. Besides earthquakes, Arabia is subject to sudden and most
violent storms; one kind of which is well known as the
simoom, samiel, or samm ; the rhamsin of Egypt, and the
harmattan of the coast of Guinea. It is described as being
hot and pestiferous, sweeping over the country with such
speed and fearful violence that according to some statements
men and animals are often overwhelmed by clouds of moving
sand ; in fact, it is said, persons who have the misfortune to be
travelling during one of these storms might be stifled in a
1 On the 6th May, 1831, it was 95° in the cabin of the Hugh Lindsay.
8 Taken on board the Hugh Lindsay, 25th November, 1836.
3 One of the last victims of the climate was Captain Francis Willock, R.N.,
a talented and greatlv respected officer.