AT SEA 
93 
distant about three leagues and a half, and at ten we gained 
soundings of twenty-two fathoms, on a shoal running oiF from 
the coast. At eleven we were again in deep water, and at twelve 
we passed the point of Doaro, which stands out distinguished 
from the main land like an island. The line of the coast had 
hitherto taken a NE. ~ E. direction, and thence it appears to 
decline more to the northward. At four we again had soundings 
in twenty-two fathoms, which gradually lessened to nineteen, 
at which time we were about four leagues from the land, the 
appearance of which still continued uniformly uninteresting, 
sandy, and barren. The wind was fair and the weather mild. 
In the evening, we observed the sun before it set put on a very 
unusual appearance. At the moment of emerging from a dark 
cloud, when its disk touched the horizon, it seemed to expand 
beyond its natural dimensions, became of a palish red hue, and 
assumed a form greatly resembling a portion of a column. This is 
one of the many singular effects produced by the refraction of the 
atmosphere common in this part of the world ; and something of 
the same kind may have given rise to the extraordinary appear- 
ances of the heavenly bodies mentioned by Agatharchides, to have 
occurred at the mouth of the Red Sea [jcou to a-xvii^cx. » ^ktkosi^s^ 
£%g;v Toy TjXiov (pizcrlv, cx.X7ko(, Kiovi Tracer ra ye '7rpa>Tex,BiA,(p£p7], ^C.*) which have 
been too hastily discredited by succeeding writers. Our latitude 
at noon was 4''53'30" N., long. 49''0', therm. 78, var. P. M. 5.53 
W. Current one mile and a half per hour setting to the N.E. 
September 25th. — We lost soundings in the morning oW Cape 
Bassas, where the land for a short time appeared somewhat loftier, 
* Agatharchidis quae supersunt. Oxoniee, 1597. 
