14 
ELEPHANT POINT, 
the most common kind being the rack of the Red Sea, of which 
Mr. Bruce has given a tolerably correct drawing. In every part of 
the thicket the footsteps of numerous elephants might be seen, and 
we could plainly trace the recent ravages of these animals among 
the trees, many of which lay torn up by the roots, stripped of their 
bark, and their branches and leaves rudely twisted olF and trampled 
in the mire. At some little distance round the point we discovered 
an old deserted shed, the remains of a fire, and some remnants of 
roasted fish and cashew nuts left by the natives. Several 
trees near this spot had been burnt to the ground, and a kind 
of artificial entrenchment seemed to have been made, for the 
purpose, no doubt, of keeping away elephants and other wild 
beasts during the night. Soon afterwards we started a deer, which 
led ns to conceive that the natives were not at that time in the 
neighbourhood; still, however, having no particular object in 
view, we did not think it prudent to proceed, and therefore re- 
turned to the boat, after having collected a few specimens of 
plants, among which the following may be enumerated ; a new 
and beautiful species of Combretum, Rhizophora gymnorhiza 
Linn. ; Sonneratia ascidaXmw.5«^^|?/.; Avicennia tomentosaXm/^. 
(rack-tree of Mr. Bruce) ; a species of Sapindus ; and another of 
Diospyros, probably not described. 
Whether the neck of land which we now left (which I shall 
call Elephant Point) be an island, or a part of the main land, 
we had no means of ascertaining ; it forms the southern cape of 
a large bay or inlet about five miles across and ten or twelve 
deep. As we stretched across this bay, about three miles west by 
south from Elephant Point, we came to a reef, over which the 
