32 I 'o/ca/ioes in the Bay of Bengal. 



Volcanoes in the Bay of Bengal \ fyc. By Dr BuiST of Bombay. 



(Continued from vol. lii. p. 352.) 



The volcanic forms the terminal point of Southern Arabia, 

 where the shore, after having inclined gently from Ras-el- 

 Hudd, 21° north lat., at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, to 

 12°, stretches almost due west, till it turns up the Red Sea. 

 At no great distance of time it has obviously been an island, 

 and is now connected with the mainland by a low sandy spit 

 four miles long, and half a mile across, only a few feet above 

 high-water mark : the whole shore, indeed, consists of sandy 

 downs or swamps, only a little above the level of the sea, 

 and wearing the aspect of recent emergence. The peninsula 

 itself is an irregular oval, five miles in its greater, and three 

 in its lesser diameter. There are numerous little headlands 

 with sandy bays between, all around it. There is at the head 

 of eacli little bay, and on several points of the shore besides 

 a level expanse of rolled gravel and sea-shells, evidently an 

 old sea margin, brought to light by the same upheaval that 

 converted the island into a peninsula, and raised the isthmus 

 above the level of the sea. The rocks themselves are all 

 lavas of various descriptions, more or less vesicular, and the 

 volcano affords a vast diversity of igneous minerals. There 

 seem to have been from time to time a number of craters in 

 the mountain, one of very considerable magnitude beyond 

 the coal depot betwixt Ras Moorbut and Ras Tar Shagan, 

 having been blown outwards, and now remains as a valley 

 ascending from the sea. The edge of the principal crater is 

 near the centre of the peninsula. The crater itself occupies 

 the eastern half. It is exceedingly well-defined indeed, and 

 at once indicates its origin to the spectator. It is about one- 

 and-a-half mile in diameter, and is nearly circular, affording 

 a circuit of five miles. Of this, half-a-mile has been blown 

 out right down to the level of the sea. The bottom of the 

 crater, on which stands the town of Aden and the British 

 cantonments, is covered with a bed of rolled gravel and sea- 

 shells, proving that there has been no trace of eruption since 

 the last general upheaval, which produced the sea-beach all 

 along these shores, but which is still believed to have been 



