sh, croaking notes, as a sort of rough thanks
for their night's lodging, and sailed away to the Abyssinian shore.

The general appearance of Aden from the sea, though picturesque, is not
inviting, giving one an idea of great barrenness. The mountains and
rocks have a peaked aspect, like a spear pointed at one, as much as to
say "Better keep off." People who land for the first time, however, are
agreeably disappointed by finding that every opportunity for
encouraging vegetation and imparting its cheerful effect to the rocky
soil has been duly improved. When we bid Aden good-by in the after-glow
of sunset, the sea on the harbor side was of a deep azure, while in the
direction of the ocean it stretched away to the horizon in a soft, pale
green. This effect, added to the lingering orange hue in the west, and
the sober gray of the rocky promontory itself, made up a pleasing
variety of color.

Our course was now nearly north, leaving behind us the island of Prim as
well as Aden, the former being also a British stronghold at the mouth of
this inland sea, close to the Arabian coast, and less than ten miles
from the African shore, which facts will show the reader how narrow is
the southern entrance of the Red Sea. The bold headlands of Abyssinia
were long visible on our port side, while on the starboard we had a
distant view of Arabia with the Libyan range of mountains in the
background, forming the boundary of the desert of the same name. Jeddah,
the sea-port of Mecca, the resort of all pious Mohammedans, and Mocha,
with its bright sunlit minarets, the place so suggestive of good coffee,
were to be seen in the distance. In coasting along the shores of Nubia,
the dense air from off the land was like a sirocco, suffocatingly hot,
the effect being more enervating than that of any previous experience of
the journey. Here the water was observed to be much saltier to the taste
than that of the open sea, a fact easily accounted for, as it is subject
to the fierce tropical sun, and the consequent rapid evaporation leaves
the saline property in aggregated proportions at the surface. This is a
phenomenon generally observable in land-locked arms of the ocean
similarly situated: the Persian Gulf being another instance. The free
circulation of ocean-currents, as well as the heavy rain-falls of other
tropical regions, renders the conditions more uniform. As we sailed
through the Gulf of Suez we had the shores of Egypt on both sides of us.
T