DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
145 
to small boats, at high water, deprives Suez of 
the only advantage which could compensate so 
unfavourable a situation. The character of the 
surrounding scenery is of the most dreary and 
savage kind. Not the smallest appearance of 
verdure can be observed from the terraces of the 
city, but the eye travels heavily over the yel- 
low sands and the pools of green water, to rest 
on the white rocks of Arabia. Adjacent to Suez, 
on the northern side, a heap of mouldered ruins 
marks the site of the ancient Clysma, the Kol- 
zoum of the Arabs, from which the Red Sea has 
received its Arabic appellation. At the northern 
extremity of the gulf is the position of Arsinoe, 
which has long been rendered inaccessible to ma- 
riners, by impervious shoals formed in its vicinity. 
The loose texture of the low and sandy soil of the 
peninsula combines, with the action of the waves, 
to aid the formation of salt morasses ; and the ac- 
cumulation of sand on the banks of coral, which 
are numerous in the Red Sea, forms the most dan- 
gerous shoals. When the sea is unruffled, the co- 
ral banks, particularly on the Arabian shore, exhi- 
bit such appearances of beauty, as rival the splen- 
did fictions of the ancients, concerning the palaces 
and groves of the Nereids beneath the waves. 
The promontory of Tor, a continuation of the 
ridge of Sinai, divides the extremity of the Red 
Sea into two deep gulfs. At the extremity of the 
VOL. II. K 
