8 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. I. 



south, over the land. Barren rocks accompanied us the 

 whole way, beginning with the distant mountains of Sinai 

 and Horebj and having left behind the volcanic islands of 

 Zebayer and the peaks of Babel-Mandeb, to both of which 

 we were quite sufficiently near to discern their evidently 

 crateriform character, another picture was for a few hours 

 presented to oin- bodily eyes. This time it was the barren, 

 craggy, extinct volcano which is now Aden, where the scene 

 was as whoUy new and distinct as any previous one. The 

 black Somali from the opposite African coast, their heads 

 either plastered with chenam, or their light-yellowish hair, 

 dyed from its native hue by this treatment, and woven iato 

 long ringlets all over the face, here mingled with Arabs, and 

 formed fitting denizens of a country that was little better 

 than an arid desert. Long strings of camels toiled in pro- 

 cession up the hiUs, laden with water-skins, fire-wood, and 

 bars of iron, — and here and there a half-naked negro met 

 us, seated upon a dromedary's hump, and passing us at a 

 long swinging trot, such as only a camel could accomplish. 

 Vegetation was here scarcely less rare than in the desert 

 itseK — small patches of green, however, were here and 

 there visible, produced by a Eesedaceous plant (allied to 

 mignonette), which struggled to maintain existence — and it 

 was not until we arrived at the neighbourhood of the great 

 water tanks that we observed how the industry of man had 

 converted a wilderness into a garden, and at infinite labour 

 and expense had not only conveyed thither flowers and 

 plants from distant regions, but even the very soU in which 

 they were growing. Here, in the yawniag mouth of what, 

 ages back, had been the fiery gulf of a great volcano, but of 

 which nothing but the form now remains, are the canton- 

 ments or military stations, aiid aU around is life and bustle. 



