The Land of Midian — Volume 2 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
page 72 of 325 (22%)
page 72 of 325 (22%)
 | |
|
often interchanged, would here place the
of Ptolemy (north lat. 25 degrees 40'). According to my friend, also, the Ras Abu Masarib, the long thin point north of which the Wady Damah, half-way to the Wady Azlam, falls in, represents the suspecting that both lie further south--in fact, somewhere about El- Haura.[EN#31] Here the maritime heights, known as the Jibal ("Mountains" of the) Tihamat-Balawiyyah (of "the Baliyy tribe"), recede from the sea, and become mere hills and hillocks; yet the continuity of the chain is never completely broken. At noon we slipped into the channel, about a mile and a half broad, which separates the mainland from the Jebel ("Mount") Nu'man, as the island is called: so the Arabs speak of Jebel (never Jezirat) Hassani.[EN#32] The surface of the water was like oil after the cross seas on all sides, the tail of an old gale which the Arab pilots call Bahr madfun ("buried sea"), corresponding with the Italian mar vecchio. On our return northwards we landed upon Nu'man, whose name derives from the red-flowered Euphorbia retusa; bathed, despite the school of sharks occupying the waters around; collected botany, and examined the ground carefully. Like the Dalmatian Archipelago, it once formed part of the mainland, probably separated by the process that raised the maritime range. The rolling sandy plateau and the dwarf Wadys are strewed with trap and quartz, neither of which could have been generated by the new sandstones and the yellow corallines. It has two fine bays, facing the shore and admirably defended from all winds; the southern not a little resembles Sinafir-cove. |
|
