I 
MOMBASA 
9 
the old fort built by the Portuguese and now used as a 
jail. It has been already mentioned that Mombasa is a 
coral island, and has, like the adjacent coast, a fringing 
reef. When the tide is out, it is easy to walk across the 
reef which is then covered by a few inches of water : 
The Baobab or Monkey Bread Tree. 
even at high tide the water is only a few feet in depth, 
but in the comparatively narrow interval between the 
reef frinffinsf the land and that surrounding the island, 
the water suddenly attains a depth of sixteen fathoms. 
This makes it necessary for navigators to exercise 
