Intersected with Fiumaras which roll torrents during the
monsoon, they are covered with a scrub of thorns, wild fig, aloe, and
different kinds of Cactus.
[13] The climate of Berberah is cool during the winter, and though the sun
is at all times burning, the atmosphere, as in Somali land generally, is
healthy. In the dry season the plain is subject to great heats, but lying
open to the north, the sea-breeze is strong and regular. In the monsoon
the air is cloudy, light showers frequently fall, and occasionally heavy
storms come up from the southern hills.
[14] I quote Lieut. Cruttenden. The Berberah water has acquired a bad name
because the people confine themselves to digging holes three or four feet
deep in the sand, about half-a-mile from high-water mark. They are
reconciled to it by its beneficial effects, especially after and before a
journey. Good water, however, can be procured in any of the Fiumaras
intersecting the plain; when the Hajj Sharmarkay's towers commanded the
town wells, the people sank pits in low ground a few hundred yards
distant, and procured a purer beverage. The Banyans, who are particular
about their potations, drink the sweet produce of Siyaro, a roadstead
about nineteen miles eastward of Berberah.
[15] The experiment was tried by an officer who brought from Bombay a
batch of sparrows and crows. The former died, scorbutic I presume; the
latter lingered through an unhappy life, and to judge from the absence of
young, refused to entail their miseries upon posterity.
[16] The climate of Aden, it may be observed, has a reputation for
salubrity which it does not deserve. The returns of deaths prove it to be
healthy for the European soldier as London, and there are many who have
built their belief upon the sandy soil of statistics. But it is the
practice of every sensible medical man to hurry his patients out of Aden;
they die elsewhere,--some I believe recover,--and thus the deaths caused
by the crater are attributed statistically to Bombay or the Red Sea.
Aden is for Asiatics a hot-bed of scurry and ulcer. Of the former disease
my own corps, I am informed, had in hospital at one time 200 cases above
the usual amount of sickness; this arises from the brackish water, the
want of vegetables, and lastly the cachexy induced by an utter absence of
change, diversion, and excitement. The ulcer is a disease endemic in
Southern Arabia; it is frequently fatal, especially to the poorer classes
of operatives, when worn out by privation, hardship, and fatigue.
[17] The Abban is now the pest of Berberah.
