there is no grass or forage
of any kind; it is the driest country on the face of the earth. The fish
which are given to the cattle are very small, and during March, April, and
May, are caught in such quantities as would astonish you. They are then
dried and stored, and the beasts are fed on them from year's end to year's
end. The cattle will also readily eat these fish all alive and just out of
the water.[NOTE 4]

The people here have likewise many other kinds of fish of large size and
good quality, exceedingly cheap; these they cut in pieces of about a pound
each, and dry them in the sun, and then store them, and eat them all the
year through, like so much biscuit.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.--_Shihr_ or _Shehr_, with the article, ES-SHEHR, still exists on
the Arabian coast, as a town and district about 330 m. east of Aden. In
1839 Captain Haines described the modern town as extending in a scattered
manner for a mile along the shore, the population about 6000, and the
trade considerable, producing duties to the amount of 5000_l._ a year. It
was then the residence of the Sultan of the Hamum tribe of Arabs. There is
only an open roadstead for anchorage. Perhaps, however, the old city is to
be looked for about ten miles to the westward, where there is another
place bearing the same name, "once a thriving town, but now a desolate
group of houses with an old fort, formerly the residence of the chief of
the _Kasaidi_ tribe." (_J.R.G.S._ IX. 151-152.) Shehr is spoken of by
Barbosa (_Xaer_ in Lisbon ed.; _Pecher_ in Ramusio; _Xeher_ in Stanley; in
the two last misplaced to the east of Dhofar): "It is a very large place,
and there is a great traffic in goods imported by the Moors of Cambaia,
Chaul, Dabul, Batticala, and the cities of Malabar, such as cotton-stuffs
... strings of garnets, and many other stones of inferior value; also much
rice and sugar, and spices of all sorts, with coco-nuts; ... their money
they invest in horses for India, which are here very large and good. Every
one of them is worth in India 500 or 600 ducats." (_Ram._ f. 292.) The
name Shehr in some of the Oriental geographies, includes the whole coast
up to Oman.

NOTE 2.--The hills of the Shehr and Dhafar districts were the great source
of produce of the Arabian frankincense. Barbosa says of Shehr: "They carry
away much incense, which is produced at this place and in the interior; ...
it is exported hence all over the world, and here it is used to pay ships
wi