22o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The pafTage between them is practicable by fmall craft 

 only, whole planks are fewed together, and are not affec- 

 ted by a ftroke upon hard ground ; for it is not for want 

 of water that this navigation is dangerous. All the weft 

 coaft is very bold, and has more depth of water than the 

 eaft ; but on this fide there is no anchoring ground, nor 

 fhoals. It is a rocky more, and there is depth of water eve- 

 ry where, yet that part is full of funken rocks ; which, 

 though not vifible, are near enough the furface to take up 

 a large fhip, whofe deftruction thereupon becomes inevi- 

 table. This I prefume arifes from one caufe. The moun- 

 tains on the fide of Egypt and Abyffinia are all (as we have 

 Hated) hard (tone, Porphyry, Granite, Alabaiter, Bafaltes, and 

 many forts of Marble. Thefe are all therefore fixed, and 

 even to the northward of lat i6°, where there is no rain, 

 very fmall quantities of duft or fand can ever be blown from 

 them into the fea. On the oppofite, or Arabian fide, the fea- 

 coaft of the Hejaz, and that of the Tehama, are all moving 

 lands ; and the dry winter- monfoon from the fouth-eaft 

 blows a large quantity from the deferts, which is lodged a- 

 mong the rocks on the Arabian fide of the Gulf, and con- 

 lined there by the north-eaft or fummer- monfoon, which is 

 in a contrary direction, and hinders them from coming, 

 over, or circulating towards the Egyptian fide.. 



From this it happens, that the weft, or Abyflinian fide, 5s 

 full of deep water, interfperfed with funken rocks, unmafk- 

 ed, or uncovered with fand, with which they would other- 

 wife become iflands. Thefe are naked and bare all round, 

 and fharp like points of fpears ; while on the eaft-fide there 

 arc rocks, indeed, as in the other, btit being between the fauth- 

 caft monfoon, which drives the fand into its coaft, and the 

 i north- weft 



