ADEN. 307 
salter than any other part, or than any other sea in the East, the 
saltness decreasing from Suez to 20° lat., where and from whence 
to the Straits the sea is no salter than the Indian Ocean, which 
does not differ from the Atlantic or Pacific. 
Aden, Dec. 19th. 
Aden is one of the most remarkable places I ever saw, and I 
only wonder that so little has been heard of it. It is a great, . 
black, barren volcano, long extinct and of great age, starting 
abruptly from the ocean opposite the flat shore of Arabia, with which | 
it is connected by a long, low, flat spit of sand. To the west of 
it is a smaller, but somewhat similar, peninsula of rugged rocks. 
They are like to the volcanic islands of the southern part of 
the Red Sea and some parts of the coast of Africa, but altogether 
different from the S.W. end of Arabia. The long low beach is 
richly wooded with Acacias, Dates, and Mangroves, I am in- 
formed; but it is impossible to land there without being taken 
prisoner by the Arabs, whom we deprived of Aden. Ships do not 
lie off the shore, but at the N.W. end of the peninsula, and 
sheltered from the N.E. monsoon now blowing strong; and there 
are the coal depots, a solitary hôtel, and one or two houses of 
officials. The peninsula is one mass of volcanic rock, 1,700 feet 
high, a very ancient volcano, in short, whose crater is broken down to 
the eastward, where the town is placed. In this respect it resembles 
St. Helena, but is as sterile to look at as Ascension, or more so; for 
the top of Green Mountain (in Ascension) is green; while here, 
except in a few flat places near the coast, no green thing is to be 
discerned from the sea. Quite three-fourths of the rock are inacces- 
sible, the upper part consisting of a wall extraordinarily jagged 
and serrated, several miles long, many parts of which are no 
broader than a horse’s back. This wall sends-off spurs; so that 
take the peninsula where you will, you have a full front; and cut 
it down where you may, there is always a pointed perpendicular 
section. The wall forms the rim of the crater and is all but macces- 
sible; the slopes and land at the base are all volcanic cinders, 
strata of lava, dykes of basalt, and such like. Upon the whole, 
it is the ugliest, blackest, most desolate, and most dislocated piece 
2M2 
