THE CURRENT. 



141 



and the paroxysms of the neighbouring cyclone 

 region. At all times sailors remark the ' short- 

 ness ' of the waves and the scanty intervals be- 

 tween their succession. This peculiarity cannot 

 be explained in the usual way by shoals and 

 shallow water causing a ground-swell. 



With respect to the great East African ocean- 

 current, which has given rise to so many fables 

 gravely recorded by the Arab geographers, 1 the 

 best authorities at Zanzibar are convinced, and 

 their log-books prove, that both its set and drift, 

 like the Brazilian coast-stream, are in the present 

 state of our knowledge subject to the extremes 

 of variation. The charts and Horsburgh lay it 

 down as a regular S.W. current ; and so it is in 

 the southern, whilst in the northern part it is 

 hardly perceptible. Between Capes Guardafui 

 and Delgado it flows now up then clown the 

 coast ; here it trends inland, there it sets out to 

 sea. Dr Buschenberger relates that on Sept. 1, 



1 The Bahr el Kharab, or Bad Sea, the mountains El Mu- 

 lattam (the lashed or beaten), El Nidameh (of repentance), and 

 El Ajrad (the noisy) ; the Mountains of Magnet, and the ' Blind 

 Billows ' and ' Enchanted Breakers ' which, says El Masudi, 

 make the Omani sailor of the tribe of Azd sing — 



1 O Berberah and Jafuni (Ra'as Hafun), and thy warlock waves ! 

 Jafuni and Berberah and. their waves are these which thou 

 seest ! ' 



