Page 175 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

156 SURVEY OF THE [cm.

tion of’Akabali, long a desideratum in science,
has been determined, by which we are enabled
to fix with correctness the sites of various
towns and stations, ancient and modern, de­
pendent on that point*. To our knowledge
of these facts, we may also add the deline­
ation of two hundred miles of a sea-coast
before almost unknown, but ever to be re­
garded with sentiments of the liveliest in­
terest and veneration, as forming no incon­

siderable portion of that land of prophecy and
miracle, the scene of the principal events re­
corded in holy writ.
It was at one time feared that Government
would have withheld their sanction from an
examination of this sea, but the same liber­
ality which has ever marked the proceed­
ings of the Indian government in similar,

* Major Rennel, in his posthumous work lately published, ex­
presses mortification that, from causes not understood, the posi­
tion of ’Akabali could not be satisfactorily adjusted; the autho­
rities differing very widely in respect to one another. Pietro della
Valle visited this gulf in 1615, and saw amongst other extraordi­
nary things, a man and woman upwards of eight feet in height:
and tortoises as large as the body of a carriage. Burckhardt passed
along the eastern shore, but could not reach ’Akabali. Riippcl
was more successful.