the danger of being wrecked at El-Wijh; and it deserves more
notice than we have hitherto vouchsafed to it. The weather also
greatly improved on the next day (March 22nd): the cloud-canopy,
the excessive moisture, and the still sultriness which had
afflicted us since March 19th, were in process of being swept
away by the strong, cool, bright norther.

The survey of the Egyptian officers shows an oval extending from
north-west to south-east, with four baylets or bulges in the
northern shore. The length is upwards of a knot, and the breadth
twelve hundred yards. It may be described as the embouchure of
the Wady Dumayghah, which falls into its head, and which,
doubtless, in olden times, when the land was wooded, used to roll
a large and turbulent stream. As is often seen on this coast, the
entrance is defended by a natural breakwater which appears like a
dot upon the Chart. Capped with brown crust, falling bluff
inland, and sloping towards the main, where the usual stone-heaps
act as sea-marks, this bank of yellowish-white coralline,
measuring 310 metres by half that width, may be the remains of
the bed in which the torrents carved out the port. The northern
inlet is a mere ford of green water: my "Pilgrimage" made the
mistake of placing a fair-way passage on either side of the
islet. The southern channel, twenty-five fathoms deep and three
hundred metres broad, is garnished on both flanks with a hundred
metres of dangerous shallow, easily distinguished by green
blazoned upon blue. The bay is shoal to the south-east; the best
anchorage for ships lies to the north-west, almost touching land.
A reef or rock is reported to be in the middle ground, where we
lay with ten fathoms under us: it was seen, they say, at night,
by the aid of lanterns; but next morning Lieutenants Amir and