PEMBA. 



13 



posed of some 15 or 20 smaller items, covered 

 with the richest vegetable humus. It is, in fact, 

 an archipelago growing up into an island. Like 

 Zanzibar, it is a low bank perched upon the 

 summits of submarine mountains, which rise 

 from depths not yet fathomed. Its extreme 

 length is 42 miles, from Ra'as Kigomathe (Kego- 

 matchy of Owen), the N. West point in S. lat. 

 4" 47', and Ea'as Msuka (Said Point), in S. lat. 

 5' 29' 30''. The long narrow steep varies in 

 breadth from 2 to 10 miles (Owen), between E. 

 long. (G.) 39° 39', and 39° 48', to which 5' must 

 be added since Bombay^ and the Cape of Good 

 Hope have been found to be placed that much 

 too far west. Ha'as Kigomathe, the point near- 

 est the mainland, is separated from it by Pemba 

 Channel, here 19 to 20 miles broad, and the 

 greatest width is 35 miles. The western sea- 

 board, where calmer waters under a lea land 

 favour the labours of the polypus, is evidently 

 advancing rapidly, and here the coast-line is 

 notably broken compared with that of Zanzibar 



^ The new system of electric signals has again altered the 

 position of Bombay, which is placed now in E. long. (G.) 

 72° 48' 4". Before that invention the difference between Lon- 

 don and Paris varied from 2° 20' 15" to 2° 20' 24". In 1854 

 M. Le Verrier determined it from 200 observations to be 

 2° 20' 9.45." 



