ADEN PENINSULA. 9 



upper, more recent beds (6., p. 8) entirely, and cut through most of the 

 lower ones in the ravines so as to divide them into separate parts, in 

 a water-bearing point of view. Any bed with an outcrop on the flank 

 of the volcano, and therefore provided with a natural drainage outlet, 

 would of course be a hopeless position for an artesian boring. From 

 this reason alone it is only in the beds below the level of the bottom 

 of the ravines that such could possibly be sunk, and whatever such 

 older beds may have done in the earlier period of volcanic activity, 

 it is very doubtful if they now outcrop in the crater. If they do not, 

 of course there could be no catchment area to supply a porous stratum 

 with water. 



From the above considerations it will be seen that all the conditions, 

 lithological and stratigraphical, are unfavorable in the extreme to any 

 artesian boring, and that any attempt to sink such in the Peninsula of 

 Adefi itself would be perfectly hopeless. 



With regard to the common wells now existing at Aden, it does 



not seem that much can be done for their im- 

 Common wells. 



provementj or that a supply considerably larger 

 than that at present obtained can be hoped for from them. There does 

 not, however, seem to be any evidence that the present yield is less than 

 that of former years. Captain E,. Foster in a paper published in May 

 1839, in the proceedings of the Bombay Geographical Society, writes : 

 " The supply of water at Aden is one of the most curious features of 

 the place. It is found at present in the valley of Aden town only, 

 and close up under the clifis, and at the opening of the fissures from 

 the steppe above ; in the valley there may be upwards of one hundred 

 wells, chiefly dilapidated and choked up, but some piercing to a great 

 depth, and yielding abundant and excellent water." 



" The whole of the inhabitants, troops and all were supplied 

 during my residence there from only four of these wells, and notwith- 

 B ( 265 ) 



