14 



PEMBA. 



and with its own eastern or windward coast. In 

 this point it resembles Jutland, Iceland, and 

 Norway, where the S. West, a prevalent wind, 

 tears to pieces the occidental shores, and deposits 

 the debris upon the leeward half. The reefs and 

 shoals, branching in all directions, but especially 

 westward, are still unexplored, and every ship 

 that sounds does new work. The height of the 

 Island nowhere exceeds 180 feet, and the soil is 

 purely vegetable. The streamlets are not worth 

 mentioning, and the general unimportance of the 

 long narrow bank unfits it for representing the 

 Menouthian depot. 



A strong current runs between Zanzibar and 

 Pemba, carrying ships northwards sometimes at 

 the rate of 50 miles per diem. The principal 

 settlement, Chak-Chak, is built upon a deep 

 inlet on the western coast, where the Island is 

 narrowest. The distance is some 17 direct geo- 

 graphical miles (or 25 by course) north with 

 easting from the southern Cape, and the ap- 

 proach is winding and difficult. The most ob- 

 jectionable part of the Green Isle is its climate. 

 No man here is in rude health, laming ulcers 

 on the legs exactly resembling syphilitic sores, 

 stomach pains, and violent indigestions afflict 

 new comers : hydrocele is a plague, and the 



