The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

3. “Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed

that I had now reached a totally different climate.” (_Smith’s Report_.) And Mr. Abbott says of the same region: “Partly wooded ... and with thickets of reeds abounding with francolin and _Jirufti_ partridge.... The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and horse-beans, rice, cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and dates, and in part are of great fertility.... Rainy season from January to March, after which a luxuriant crop of grass.” Across this plain (districts of Jíruft and Rudbar), the height of which above the sea, is something under 2000 feet . . . . . . 6