DHALAC. 
^33 
connect the line of bearings : but, after mounting walls and houses 
in vain, we almost despaired of success, the situation of this 
village being extremely low, and no rising ground in the neigh- 
bourhood. At last, we resorted to the old expedient of ascending 
to the top of the mosque, an indignity which we found might be 
always compensated by the gift of a dollar, and here, after piling a 
triple story of couches, one upon the other, which were procured 
from the owner of the adjacent house, we gained, most fortunately? 
a good bearing of a goat-shed, whence Captain Court had taken 
his last bearings. Hence we likewise saw the cliff, and the high 
land of the Abyssinian coast, somewhere near Hurtoo. The day 
was unluckily too cloudy to get any solar observation, which made 
it the more important that we should get a point of bearing 
between Gerbeschid and Dhalac el-Kibeer ; we therefore determined 
to wait until morning, and proceed at day-light, when we ex- 
pected to attain our object, by mounting the cliff. I learned to day, 
that there were at this time seventeen trankies, from near Muscat, 
looking out among the islands for pearls, tortoise-shell, wood, or 
indeed whatever they could pick up ; many of these we saw 
lying off the coast in different directions. Thermometer 8!^°^. 
" January 13.— Left Gerbeschid at half past seven, and reached 
the cliff in about half an hour, having more spirited asses than 
usual. We computed the distance to be two miles and an half. 
Leaving our animals at the bottom, we ascended to the highest 
point, on which stand the two trees, which were set from Gerbes- 
chid. This cliff is nearly perpendicular, except in one or two 
places, where loose fragments of rock, that have fallen, form stepping- 
places, which render the ascent easy. In some parts of the rock ar§ 
