PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF ADEN. 
25 
to the town and to form a little bay, known by the name of Front or 
East Bay. 1 The appearance of the island of Sirah would induce the 
belief, that it had at one time completed the circle of the crater, but that, 
having been separated by some convulsion of nature, it had been carried 
out and deposited in the sea, a few hundred yards in advance of the 
gap caused by its removal. 
The external side of the crater is more or less scarped, and separated 
from the high peaks and ridges which flow from it, and in this scarped 
portion may be seen lines of horizontal stratification. Also some 
distance up the side of the slope which descends towards Back Bay may 
be seen a small series of strata, consisting of pisolitic peperine, cemented 
together with glassy crystallized gypsum. From the manner in which 
the pieces of pumice, basalt, and obsidian of which it is composed are 
arranged, together with the fact of the cement being sulphate of lime, 
we must conclude that it was deposited in the sea, and afterwards raised 
to its present position. At one part it is at least 200 feet above the level 
of the sea, though it descends to the waters edge in another. 2 
To the northward of the great crater is an immense mass of lofty 
andjagged volcanic products, probably the remains of smaller craters. 
The crater as well as the whole volcanic mass has been greatly altered 
by the action of the sea and rain since the time when the volcano was 
active. “ To passing travellers/' says Mallet, “it may appear strange 
to speak of pluvial denudation at Aden, but residents of the place are 
well acquainted with its force and extent. Bain seldom falls, it is true, 
but when it does, it generally comes down in torrents/'’ 3 
The peninsula of Little Aden is larger than Aden. Geologically 
considered it is of the same origin as the peninsula of Aden, and show s 
on the whole the same physical characteristics. It is impossible to 
recognize the ancient vent of the valcano ; the rocks do not form a 
circular crater as is the case at Aden, but rise independently from the 
sandy plain, without indicating any connection between themselves or 
pointing towards a common origin, except by their mineral composition. 
Little Aden is dominated by the Jebel Muzulghum and the Jebel 
Ghudir, two precipitous mountains which terminate in lofty inaccessible 
peaks. Jebel Muzulghum traverses the peninsula from north-west to 
1 " A. letter, dated Madras, July 1840, addressed to John Tayler, Esq., Treas. G. S. by 
Mr. Frederick Burr, on the Geology of Aden on the coast of Arabia, ” Journ. Bomb. Lr. Roy, 
As. Soc. Vol. 1, 1811, p. 83-84. 
2 Carter, H. J. : Memoir on the Geology of the South-East Coast of Arabia. Journ. Bomb. 
Br. Roy. As. Soc., Vul. 1Y, 1852, p. 85. 
8 Mallet, F. R. : On the geological structure of the country near Aden. Mem. Geol. 
Survey, India, Vol. VIII, "part 3 (1871), p. 4. 
