THE ABYSSINIAN SEABOARD.— LAKE ALALBED. 137 



The Abyssinian Seaboard. 



Beyond the Abyssinian plateaux in the vicinity of the Red Sea rise such pro- 

 montories and isolated headlands as the Gadam, or Gedem, formerly an insular rock, 

 but which now forms a promontory between the Gulf of Massawah and Adulis 

 Bay, terminating in an abrupt incline. This granite mass, although visible from 

 Massawah, has not yet been accurately measured, the estimates of travellers varying 

 from 2,700 to 3,300 feet ; but d'Abbadie has geodetically determined its highest 

 point at over 5,000 feet. The Buri headland, bounding Adulis Bay on the east, 

 also terminates in the imposing volcanic cone of Awen, the Hurtow Peak of the 

 English maps, which, although apparently extinct, is said by the natives still to 

 emit steam and sulphureous vapours. Copious hot springs flow from its sides, while 

 thousands of jets at a temperature of 168° F. bubble up amidst the surf on the 

 beach. 



South of the Buri peninsula are other irregular hills composed of volcanic rocks 

 completely separated from the mountains of Abyssinia proper. But a still active 

 volcano, known to the Afars under the name of Artali, or Ortoaleh, that is, " Smoky 

 Moimtain," rises at the extremity of a spur of the Abyssinian plateaux, south-west 

 of Hanfila (Hamfaleh) Bay, attesting the existence of undergroimd energy, of 

 which so few examples still occur on the African coast. It is described by Hilde- 

 brandt, the only explorer who has approached its crater, as a cone of blackish lava 

 seamed with crevasses, and ejecting dense volumes of whitish vapour. In its 

 vicinity stands another now quiescent sulphureous mountain, from the deposits in 

 its crater known as Kibrealeh, or " Sulphur Mountain ; " whilst farther north, 

 near the salt plains, are the isolated solfataras of Delol, or Dallol, whence the 

 Abyssinian highlanders obtain the sulphur with which they manufacture their 

 gunpowder. Finally, to the east, near the small harbour of Edd, a chaotic mass of 

 solfataras and craters gives the district the appearance of a storm-tossed sea. Sea- 

 farers speak of lavas ejected within "a day's march " of Edd, especially in 1861, 

 but their origin is unknown, unless they proceed from the already mentioned 

 Mount Ortoaleh, which lies, however, not at a day's journey, but fully sixty miles 

 inland. These volcanoes are greatly feared by the natives, who believe them to be 

 the abode of evil spirits ; under the guidance of their wizards they sacrifice a cow 

 to them, but directly the animal is placed on the flaming pyre they run away, 

 lest evil should befall them if they saw the spirits devouring their prey. 



Lake Alalbed. 



Although Ortoaleh is not situated on the sea-coast, it rises above the district of 

 Eahad, a lacustrine plain which was formerly a marine inlet. This depression, 

 which M unzinger called Ansali, from an isolated mound rising in its midst, stretches 

 .over a superficial area of about 1,000 square miles at a mean level of some 200 

 feet below the Red Sea. This plain, a miniature " ghor " similar to that flooded by 

 the Jordan and the Dead Sea, is almost entirely surrounded by a sinuous belt of 



