VEGETATION AT ADEN. 313 
lying quietly at anchor; but the poor “ Precursor” was kicking 
up the water, splashing, struggling, and backing off a bank on 
which she had grounded when getting under weigh six hours 
before, as I afterwards heard. 
A similar causeway to that by which I ascended was carried 
along the ridges, but much of it has fallen away from time to 
time, on each side of the mountain ; and a little pathway only leads 
to the summit, up which is a broad flight of steps, formed of cut 
stones laid side by side. At the top there is a signal station, 
and a soldier on duty, who, besides signalizing the shipping, takes 
meteorological observations. The lone creature lives in a hut 
built in an excavation of the summit, which is hardly broad enough 
for ten persons to stand upon, and he never sees any one but a 
“Soumali” servant or an Arab, who daily brings him water. 
I was very thirsty, but he had nothing but tepid water to offer me. 
This rocky crest is, of course, very barren of everything but Lichens, 
of which there is a fair sprinkling ; but I had no time to stay to 
collect them. My descent was less fatiguing ; though the causeway 
is formed of such slippery stones that it tired me as much as the 
ascent. Exclusive of the few plants, some forty species, there is 
little to be gained by the hot and dusty ascent of “ Shumsun,” 
always excepting the remarkable views, and the curious works of 
the Turks. 
On the Monday morning I went out at day -break to gather 
what plants I could find in the cooler valleys facing the west: 
they were more luxuriant than on the eastern side, the soil being 
more gravelly ; but still sterility was the order of the day. I added 
about twenty kinds to my former collection, but nothing remark- 
able on a casual inspection, or attractive at this flowerless season. 
Along the beach I did not procure a single maritime plant, nor 
an Alga: a dichotomous-leaved Poa, and a Cyperus, both growing 
in scattered tufts, occupying all the sand, whilst the rocks were 
invariably naked. Further back, the C/eome was abundant, with 
several smaller Capparidea, the universal Reseda, some herbaceous 
and shrubby Euphorbiaceae and Leguminose. A small weeping tree, 
ten feet high, possibly Osyris, was the largest plant. Several 
VOL. VII. IN 
