'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎161] (294/458)

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A SSAL.—B ABELMANDEB.
161
below, * *• the volcano being scarcely yet asleep. Off the outer bay the
bills are of limestone, and rise to the height of 2000 feet.
The rocks around the salt lake Assal, whose waters are now nearly
dried up and encrusted with salt, are all volcanic on the eastern side.
Abed of lava, containing several deep fissures, separates the waters
of the lake from those at Gubat el Kherab, of which it appears to have
been a continuation.f The lake is 11 ° 38 / 12" N., and 42° 30'6^ E. •
it is about seven miles across in its larger diameter, and o70 feet below
the level of the sea. Eor about 300 miles westward into the interior
the whole country seems volcanic. To the south-westward of this, near
Shoa, is the volcano of Gibbel Abida, about 4000 feet high, its crater
opening to the W\, and a ! out two and half miles in diameter, and
further on the still higher peak of Aiullo. Here there is an even plain
about thirty miles in diameter, studded wdth small cones, of which as
many as twenty may be counted at once, each exhibiting a distinct and
well formed crater. The lava every where around is fresh and glossy
but no tradition exists of any eruption having occurred within the
memory of man.
Returning to the Straits of Babelmandeb, we find the volcanic
peaks of the High Brothers, just outside the gut, on the African shores.
The Island of Perim, which occupies a portion of the Strait near the
Arabian side, with the Babelmandeb Peak on the mainland close by, are
masses of lava. Along the African shore, from lat. 11° to lat. 14°, and
from long. 42° to Long 44° the series of volcanoes is uninterrupted
for the space of 400 miles running into the interior about 10° N. to
wards Ankobar, long 40° E.t How far the volcanic district extends
into the interior along the African shore within the Straits of Babel
mandeb does not appear—a range of hills above fourteen miles from the
sea, to which it is nearly parallel is set down on the chart as mostly
volcanic: there is a second chain of very high mountains parallel to this
again, about fifty miles further to the west, but its character does not
appear to have been ascertained. On the Arabian shore, from lat. 13°
* Harm’ Highlands of Eihiopia, vol. i. p 17.
t "Dr Kirk’s Journey from Tadjoura to Ankobar, 1841. Royal Geogrl. Trans. 1841, vol.
*• rhe paragraph is given verba'ini. Ibid, and more extended, Bombay Geogrl. Trans, vol,
Tl -i 18U to 1841.
t Dr Kirk, ut sup.