66 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



bian coast, have always been, and still are, celebrated 

 for their pearl-fishery. In the neighbourhood of 

 these islands fresh springs are found in the mid- 

 dle of the salt water. The Persian coast is safer 

 and more elevated than the Arabian. Near the 

 upper end the gulf is forty leagues in breadth, and 

 about seventy in the middle ; but the strait at Cape 

 Mussendom does not exceed fifty-five miles. 



The Red Sea occupies a deep rocky cavity, ex- 

 tending about 1160 miles in length, and its mean 

 breadth may be taken at about 120. Strabo has com- 

 pared its shape to that of a broad river; and, as 

 has already been noticed, it does not receive the 

 waters of a single tributary stream. The name 

 greatly puzzled the ancients, and has occasioned in 

 later times a display of much superfluous learning to 

 determine whether it was derived from the colour 

 of the water, the reflection of the sandbanks and the 

 neighbouring mountains, or the solar rays struggUng 

 through a dense atmosphere. These various con- 

 jectures are set at rest ; both the air and water are 

 unusually clear ; the theory of King Erythrus is 

 exploded ; and tlie name is now admitted to be merely 

 a Greek translation of the " Sea of Edom (a Hebrew 

 word denoting Red), so frequently mentioned by the 

 sacred writers. The surface is diversified with a 

 number of islands ; some of which, such as Kotem- 

 bel, and Gebel Tar, near Loheia, exhibit volcanic 

 appearances. The western coast is bold, and has 

 more depth of water than the eastern, where the 

 coral rocks are gradually encroaching on their na- 

 tive element. These reefs are found dispersed over 

 the whole gulf, rising in some places ten fathoms 

 above the Avater. The bottom is covered with an 

 abundant harvest of tliis substance, as well as of cer- 

 tain plants ; and, if examined in calm weather, it has 

 the appearance of verdant meadows and submarine 

 forests, — phenomena which procured this gulf the 

 appellation of Yam Zuph from the Jews, and Bahr 



