54 BUIST ON THE CURIA MURIA ISLANDS. [Jan. 23, 1860. 



the same formation as the nummulite capping the igneous rocks on 

 the mainland to the north. There is no trace of alluvium or altered 

 or travelled material on any of the islands, but masses of sand and 

 gravel, the debris of the adjoining rocks, are found in the hollows 

 and valleys in the interior and forming a band along the sea-shore. 



So violent is the surge at times that the spray seems to drift far 

 into the interior of the islands, and pools of salt-water are frequently 

 found from 400 to 500 feet above the level of the sea. To this cir- 

 cumstance seems due the abundance of earthy gypsum found among 

 the guano, and which not unfrequently forms the bulk of the sub- 

 stance so called. Wherever salt-water dries up in contact with 

 earthy matter containing lime, the hasty decomposition ensues, and 

 the sulphates in the salt-water transform the carbonate into sulphate 

 of lime. Extensive beds of gypsum, originating probably in the 

 same way, are said to prevail below the guano. 



Water is tolerably abundant on these two lesser islands, but it is 

 nearly all brackish. There is one excellently built wall within 

 400 yards of the shore on the north-eastern part of Helaniyah. 



The flora of the islands, so far as hitherto dated, consists of a few 

 stunted bushes of camel-thorn, some saliferous shrubs, with a few 

 mangroves within tide-mark and the more sheltered little coves. 



The fauna of the Curia Murias is, as may be supposed, as circum- 

 scribed as their flora. Eats are in profusion, and their existence is 

 ascribed to the wreck of a vessel. Helaniyah is said to mean " Kid 

 or Sheep Island," * and here goats are found. Wild cats are some- 

 times seen among the rocks. Of reptiles, the only ones made 

 mention of are the whip-snake and scorpion. Centipedes are 

 plentiful.^ 



The climate of the Curia Murias, situated a couple of degrees 

 to the southward of Bombay, is singular, and, considering their 

 position, anomalous and inexplicable, but for the high lands 

 in their vicinity. Immediately to the northward and north- 

 westward of the shores of Curia Muria Bay is a vast mass of 

 table-land and mountains extending through Hadramaut to the 

 confines of Yemen, a distance of close on 1000 miles, of a 

 general altitude of from 3000 to 6000 feet. Facing this is, 

 from Eas Morbat to Eas Nus, a precipitous limestone wall of Sub- 

 hdn, varying in elevation from 3000 to 5000 feet ; and over these 



♦ Note to Haines' paper, Transactions of Royal Geographical Society, p. 138. 

 Haines and Hulton's, ut sup. 



t Slightly abridged from Captain Haines' Eeport, Transactions of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, pp. 127, 149. 



