254 
ON  STORAX. 
Hill,  indeed,  quaintly  remarks,  "  it  is  a  little  unlucky  that 
nobody  has  given  us  any  description  of  this  Rosa  Mallas" — But 
is  this  the  only  ambiguity  ?  Let  us  first  ask, — Does  there  exist 
any  island  of  Cobross  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Red  Sea  f 
Thanks  to  the  excellent  chart  of  the  Red  Sea  made  from  the 
surveys  of  Messrs.  Moresby  and  Carless  in  1880-33,  and  to  the 
minute  Sailing  Directions  for  the  Red  Sea,  both  published  by  the 
Hon.  East  India  Company,  we  have  a  mass  of  very  exact  and 
positive  information  relating  to  its  coasts,  and  to  its  islands  from 
the  largest  down  to  the  very  rocks  and  shoals.  Now  Petiver 
makes  his  island  of  Cobross  to  be  44  near  Oadess  which  is  3  days 
journey  from  Suez."  To  what  distance  we  ought  to  consider 
this  to  be  equivalent,  I  know  not ;  but  it  is  evident  from  the 
chart  already  referred  to,  that  there  is  no  island  in  the  Red  Sea 
nearer  to  Suez  than  about  160  miles.  Neither  this  island,  nor 
any  other  in  the  Red  Sea,  bears  the  name  of  Cobross,  or  any 
other  name  which  can  be  supposed  to  represent  it, — that  is,  so 
far  as  my  researches  have  gone,  and  I  have  taken  much  pains  in 
investigating  subject. 
Again, — are  there  any  islands  in  the  Red  Sea  extensively 
wooded,  as  Petiver's  account  would  lead  us  to  suppose  ?  On  this 
point,  the  minute  information  in  the  Sailing  Directions,  is  en- 
tirely of  a  negative  character. 
Distrusting  my  own  judgment  in  such  a  question,  I  applied  to 
John  Walker,  Esq.,  Geographer  to  the  Hon.  East  India  Com- 
pany, and  to  the  Rev.  Charles  Forster,  author  of  the  Historical 
Geography  of  Arabia,  gentlemen  whose  acquaintance  with  sources 
of  information  on  such  matters,  might,  I  thought,  suggest  some 
explanation  of  Petiver's  statement ;  but  neither  of  them  has  been 
able  to  throw  any  light  upon  it. 
Although  I  am  unable  to  find  a  Cobross  in  the  Red  Sea,  I  must 
state  that  D'Herbelot  in  his  Bibliotheque  Orientale  gives  Cobros, 
as  a  synonym  of  Cyprus :  and  also,  that  Pliny  mentions  an  island 
of  Coboris  or  Covoris,  which  has  been  identified  as  one  of  the 
Sohar  Isles,  near  Burka,  a  town  situated  on  the  East  coast  of 
Arabia,  near  the  entrance  to  the  Persian  Gulf.*  The  position 
of  either  of  these  islands  is,  of  course,  perfectly  irreconcilable 
with  that  of  Petiver's  Cobross. 
*  Forster's  Historical  Geography  of  Arabia,  Lond.  1844.    Vol.  ij.p.  230. 
