Page 148 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

VIII.] GULF OF ’aKABAH. 129

which it litters when tumbling headlong into
caverns, fretted and worn by its former frantic
violence. On such a coast, the stoutest vessel
ever constructed by the hands of man must,
within a few minutes after striking, have been
shivered and strewn alongside of it. As if to

contrast with the gloom above, the Sea had now
acquired that phosphorescent quality* which
causes its waters, when agitated, to emit lam­
bent flashes and coruscations ; so that, what
with the blaze created by the constant breaking
of the sea, and the broad beams of light which
followed each successive gust that swept down,
tearing up the water in sheets in its progress,
the whole had the appearance of a vast lake
illumined with indescribable brilliancy.
At daylight, the event occurred which we
had anticipated. The vessel drove off, fortu­
nately canting with her head off shore, with

thirty fathoms on one chain, and eighty
fathoms on the other, both large and heavy:
we had, it may be supposed, enough of diffi-

* Naturalists are much divided in opinion as to the cause of the
phenomenon. It is of frequent, often of nightly, occurrence within
the tropics; but I never witnessed its brilliancy on any other occa­
sion equal to this.
VOL. II. K