Page 154 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

VIII.] GULF OF ’AKABAH. 135

P.M . Captain Moresby went ahead in one of
the quarter-boats to seek for anchorage, which
he found under the lee of a patch of rocks
about two miles distant. He then hoisted a
light, and we made the best of our way to­

wards him. The wind was then exceedingly
fitful and variable, there being puffs occasion­
ally from the north-east. The hills also ap­
peared hazy, and heavy-looking clouds hung
over their summits. I was most anxious to
get our boat on board, as, our doing so after
the gale had once set in, seemed exceedingly
doubtful. Fortunately, about nine o’clock, we

reached her, and came-to in three fathoms,
with seventy fathoms of chain. Under our
stern there was no bottom. We had anchored,
therefore, as before, on the edge of a steep
reef, and could discern, through the haze of
the night, a steep point extending to seaward,
but nothing more. At midnight, the north­
east gale returned with all its former fury.
The sound it produced on the water, as it
came tearing along towards us, resembled
that of the “ bore*.” We cut away our spare

I * This effect, common to many rivers of the eastern as well as
the western hemisphere, is produced by the tide forcing its way
I