Page 332 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

xv.] COAST OF NUBIA. 311

thirty yards broad and fifty deep, and the
sides of several have been built up so as to
form habitations. In the pits, and on other
parts of the mountain, we picked up several
pieces of the green crystal, which appears to
be of the same quality as that described by
Bruce, in his visit to the Emerald Mountains
on the Egyptian coast. He observes, “ that
the green crystal, which is the Siberget and

Bilm of the Ethiopians—perhaps Zumrud,
the Smaragdus described by Pliny, is by
no means the emerald known since the dis­
covery of the New World, whose first cha­
racter absolutely defeats its intention; the
true Peruvian emerald being only equal in
hardness to the ruby.”
There is little doubt, however, but that St.
John’s was the island to which the Greeks
transported their criminals for the purpose of
seeking for what they considered emeralds,

and that the excavations we discovered were
mines.

While stating the whole of the facts which
came under my observation during our stay
in the Red Sea, connected with Mr. Bruce’s
chart and narrative of his voyages to its
several ports, it is by no means my intention