Page 319 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

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COAST OF ARABIA. [cn.
leads. As illustrative of this we may men­

tion the fact that the partial opening of
trade by the late expedition has already
more than doubled that of every portion of
the Levant at all connected with its opera­
tions.
The Red Sea may be navigated at all sea­

sons, and the idea that it is fast filling up is
quite chimerical. The reefs offer no impedi­

ment; indeed it has been shown in a preced­
ing portion of this memoir that the shelter
they afford would, in some cases, facilitate,
as they merely line the shores on either hand
above Jiddah to the Straits of Jubal; while
the average width of the clear sea is one
hundred miles, and but one reef, the Daedalus,
occurs within the whole of this space, which

may, moreover, be pronounced unfathomable.
Neither can its currents be considered as
affecting the duration of the passage to any
sensible extent ; and although its winds
might occasionally retard a steamer's pro­
gress, there are times in which they would
materially assist her.
It is very erroneously supposed that the