Page 450 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XXII.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 423

many parts of the Arabian coast, by the cal­

cination of coral. Hasan Gorab is about five
hundred feet in height, and its basis is a
dark, greyish-coloured, compact limestone.
I
It appears to have been formerly insulated,
although now connected to the main by a low
sandy isthmus, blown up there by the vio­
lence of the south-westerly winds, and evi­
dently of recent formation. The action of
the sea might indeed be plainly traced in

the cavities and hollows exhibited by a ridge
of rocks now some distance from the water,
but which, evidently at some no very remote
period, must have been covered by it.
We had been vainly looking for a path by
which we might ascend to the summit, but it
appeared inaccessible on every side, and had
almost given up our search, when it was sug­
gested that the two towers which were stand­
ing "by themselves, might possibly have com­

manded the approach and entrance to one.
Scrambling, accordingly, over the ruins
formed by the falling of the upper part of
these, we at length discovered some faint
traces of a track, which, in order to facilitate
the ascent, had been cut along the face of