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



2. Gurzawt, Agarezawt, or Bodondo, the last being the name by 

 which it is usually known among European navigators, is a small 

 rocky island about two miles in circumference, about six miles to 

 the north of Helaniyah. It consists of a mass of four rocks at the 

 base all grouped together; then of two conical peaks of unequal 

 size, the higher attaining an elevation of about 200 feet above the 

 level of the sea. There is a small rocky island about 300 yards to 

 the westward of Eodondo, and another about half this distance to the 

 north-west, with channels of from 8 to 13 fathoms between. 



3. Soddhy six miles to the westward of Helaniyah, stands next to 

 it in point of size. It is about three miles in length by two in 

 breadth. It forms an oblong concave in its longer side, with a fine 

 bay 1500 yards deep,* the entrance being about 900 across. It con- 

 sists of a group of rugged, barren, independent hills, rising in a 

 vast shapeless mass near the centre to the altitude of 1310 feet ; 

 gravel and sand abounding all along the sea-shore and in the har- 

 bours in the interior. 



4. Jurzat, Kibbiah, or Jebeliyah, the easternmost of the group, is 

 somewhat oval, and 3 miles in the longer by 2 in the shorter 

 diameter. It consists, like the rest, of a collection of detached hills 

 more rounded and less pointed than the others, the highest of them 

 attaining an altitude of 560 feet. There are a number of small 

 peaked islands immediately around the shore, with multitudes of 

 sunken rocks rising just above the surge. 



5. Hasiki^ the westernmost of the group, is 3|- miles long by f 

 broad, lat. 17° 27' 16", long. 55° 40' 49". It attains an elevation of 

 about 500 feet, and has a sunken rock to the westward of 150 yards 

 in length. 



Captain Haines and Dr. Hulton, neither claiming to be professed 

 geologists, though both excellent observers, are the only authorities 

 we have as to the geology of these islands ; but the valuable papers 

 of Dr. Carter on the southern coast of Arabia afford us much col- 

 lateral light. The Curia Murias, with the exception of the great 

 bluff of the HeMniyah group, consist entirely of plutonic rocks, 

 granite, syenite, porphyry, and hornblende rock :f — 



* Haines, Transactions of Eoyal Geographical Society of London, 1845, p. 130: 

 and Bombay Geographical Transactions, 1854. How much it is to be regretted 

 that the papers of Captain Haines and Dr. Hulton were not examined when the 

 guano adventures first began in 1856 I The sailing directions of Captain Haines 

 are so valuable that a reprint of them ought to accompany any new survey. 



t I give hornblende-rock on my own authority; Dr. Hulton calls it greenstone, 

 but his description corresponds much more closely with what I have designated it 

 than what he assumes it to be. The structure of the Curia Murias seems closely 

 to resemble that of the granite and hornblende rocks at Vingorla. Dr. Carter 



