BEACH AT ADEN. 



169 



forty feet high, having the Baised Beach about two-thirds 

 up the side of it. 



The Raised Beach consists of a narrow stratum of sand 

 of inconsiderable length with shells of the same kind as the 

 dead ones lying on the shore below, and it occupies the floor 

 of a recess in the rock. At first sight it would seem that, 

 subsequent to its elevation, it was partly overlapped by a 

 volcanic eruption, but I am more inclined to believe that the 

 rock projecting above and sheltering the sand and shells is 

 a part of the original formation on whose slope the sea- 

 beach rested, and into the hollows and caverns of which the 

 sand and shells drifted where they have, strange to say, 

 remained undisturbed for centuries, and been preserved from 

 destruction, all the shells lying unbroken parallel to each 

 other and on a bed of smooth unruffled sand. The upheaval 

 must have been very gradual in its progress, and cannot be 

 ascribed to any of the volcanic eruptions or earthquakes that 

 have visited Aden. The mountain of Jebel Shumshum, 

 semi-circular in shape, forming the peninsula of Aden, and 

 consisting of volcanic products, is the crater of the first 

 eruption, which was followed by a second, raising another 

 crater within the first ; the second crater is intersected by a 

 very remarkable rent or ravine caused by an earthquake. 

 I apprehend these disturbances took place prior to the gradual 

 upheaval of the beach, the materials of which could not 

 possibly have been subjected to any of those convulsions. 

 Should this paper arrest the notice of any geologist at Aden, 

 it is to be hoped he will make a more careful examination 

 than I did, and ascertain whether the Raised Beach is 

 continued in other localities. A careful search might also be 

 made under the stratum of sand and undisturbed shells for 

 any fragments of pottery or other proofs of the existence of 

 man. Were such discovered we should obtain a clue to the 

 period of time which has elapsed since the Raised Beach 

 commenced to ascend. 



