Aral Sea

“ The eastern coast is fringed with multitudes of small islands, and other islands, some of considerable size, are situated in the open towards the north and west. Kug-Aral, the largest, lies opposite the mouth of the Syr-darya, cutting off the Kichkineh-denghiz or Little Sea. The next largest island is the Nikolai, nearly in the middle. Navigation is dangerous owing to the frequency and violence of the storms, and the almost total absence of shelter. The north-east wind is the most prevalent, and sometimes blows for months together. ”

“ Taking this view, there is very little difficulty in agreeing with Sir Henry Rawlinson, who founded his assertion on a very valuable Persian manuscript, that in former times the Sea of Aral had no existence whatever.
The journey from Kungrat to Khiva is generally made by land, since it requires from eighteen to twenty days up stream. The transport of freight is made by [145] water. There are three roads by land; 1, by Köhne Urgends, which is called the summer route, and avoids the lakes, outlets and arms of the Oxus, which at that season of the year are full to overflowing. ”

“ Eastward of the Caspian, and south of the Aral, much of the waste land is a salt desert, and the shells, mixed with the surface sand, afford further evidence that it was in times not very remote part of the bottom of a large inland sea, of which the landlocked waters of Western Asia are a survival. ”

“ In the lowlands the Aral-Caspian deposits, which it is difficult to separate sharply from the later Tertiary, cover the whole of the area. They contain shells of molluscs now inhabiting the Sea of Aral, and in their petrographical features are exactly like those of the lower Volga. ”

“ A striking instance of it is given in the supposed connexion of Lake Aral with the Arctic Ocean during historical times; physical changes are proceeding so rapidly in Asia that we find traces of like survivals of traditions even in this age of accurate surveys. ↑ No Russian sea shows so rapid a growth of navigation as the Caspian Sea during the last fifteen years. ”

“ Altogether, therefore, the navigation of this part of the Arabian coast is very dangerous: for, apart from the barbarity of its people, it has neither harbours nor good roadsteads, and it is foul with breakers, and girdled with rocks which render it inaccessible. For this reason when sailing south we stand off from a shore in every way so dreadful, and keep our course down the middle of the gulf, straining our utmost to reach the more civilized part of Arabia, which begins at Burnt Island. ”

“ We set sail and took our course towards the East Indies by the Persian Gulf, having the coast of Persia upon our left hand and upon our right the shores of Arabia Felix. I was at first much troubled by the uneasy motion of the vessel, but speedily recovered my health, and since that hour have been no more plagued by sea-sickness.
From time to time we landed at various islands, where we sold or exchanged our merchandise, and one day, when the wind dropped suddenly, we found ourselves becalmed close to a small island like a green meadow, which only rose slightly above the surface of the water. ”

“ A gulf, containing hot and submarine springs, divides the secondary from the primary and schistose rocks of the peninsula of Araya. Each of these coasts is washed by a tranquil sea, of azure tint, and always gently agitated by a breeze from one quarter. A bright clear sky, with a few light clouds at sunset, reposes on the ocean, on the treeless peninsula, and on the plains of Cumana, while we see the storms accumulate and descend in fertile showers among the inland mountains. ”

“ Our author is describing a sailing-course which is obvious by referring to the map. The straight course before the trade-wind, from Hisn Ghorab to the Gulf of Cambay or the mouth of the Indus, would carry a vessel along the Arabian shore as far as Ras Fartak, beyond which the coast gradually recedes, so that the vessel would stand out to sea without changing its course. A vessel bound for the Malabar ports and sailing before the wind, with the type of rigging then in use, would have required steering off her course the whole time, thus describing a wide curve before making the Indian coast. ”

“ It is beauty indeed, but the sombre and awful beauty of the night and storm. The eye turns for relief and reassurance to the paly-golden lustrous roof, and watches that tender penciling which brightens every object it touches. The hull of the sunken ship, lying slant and open to the sun, has been long enough submerged to be crusted with barnacles, hydropores, crustacea and the labored constructions of the microscopic existences and vegetation that fill the sea. The song of Ariel becomes vivid and realistic in its rich word-power ”

“ At no great distance from Leukê Kômê the Nabathaean realm terminates and Arabia [Pg 77] begins. The coast is here described as most dismal, and as in every way dangerous to navigation. The inhabitants at the same time are barbarians, destitute of all humanity, who scruple not to attack and plunder wrecked ships and to make slaves of their crews if they escaped to land. The mariner therefore, shunned these inhospitable shores, and standing well out to sea, sailed down the middle of the gulf. ”

“ There they stand, for all the world like their neighbours ashore; only the salt water sobbing between them instead of the quiet earth, and clots of sea-pink blooming on their sides instead of heather; and the great sea conger to wreathe about the base of them instead of the poisonous viper of the land. On calm days you can go wandering between them in a boat for hours, echoes following you about the labyrinth; but when the sea is up, Heaven help the man that hears that cauldron boiling.
Off the south-west end of Aros these blocks are very many, and much greater in size. ”

“ As we approached it seemed to grow larger and larger. It was pretty clearly not a ship’s bottom, nor a whale, and finally it resolved itself into a high rock surrounded by a coral reef—so we judged from the line of surf which every now and then we saw rising up out of the blue sea. It was a very dangerous-looking place, on which, during the fierce gales of those latitudes, in thick weather or on a dark night many a fine ship has probably been cast away. ”

“ From early childhood we had thought of Arabia as the "burning desert"—flat, of course—and of the Red Sea as bordered by "shifting sands" alone. If we had known the truth—if we had not been half ignorant—we would have missed the profound surprise of discovering that in reality the Red Sea is bordered by high and rugged mountains, leaving just space enough between themselves and the shore for a sloping plain on which our glasses could make out occasional palms. ”

“ On the side of Arabia, a wide gulf opens amidst the black ridges, and presents a vista of the shining surface of the Dead Sea, and the violet summits of the mountains of Moab. Rarely is a breath of air heard to murmur, in the fissures of the rocks, or among the branches of the aged olives; not a bird sings, nor an insect chirps in the waterless furrows. ”

“ From this bay the Arabian Gulf trends eastward, and at Aualitês is contracted to its narrowest. At a distance of about 4000 stadia (from Adouli) , if you still sail along the same coast, you reach other marts of Barbaria, called the marts beyond (the Straits) , which occur in successive order, and which, though harbourless, afford at certain seasons of the year good and safe anchorage. The first district you come to is that called Aualitês, where the passage across the strait to the opposite point of Arabia is shortest. ”

“ To a merchant familiar with the all but tideless waters of the Red Sea, it must indeed have been a wonder of nature. The same thing occurs in many places where a strong tide is forced into a narrow, shallow and curving estuary, as in Burma, the Bay of Fundy, the Bay of Panama, and elsewhere. According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India , IX, 297, high spring tides in the Gulf of Cambay rise and fall as much as 33 feet, and run at a velocity of 6 to 7 knots an hour. ”

“ So far are the parts lying beyond this region, which we have spoken of as an isthmus extending from the Arabian Gulf to the Erythræan Sea [Pg 223] from being inhabited, that even the parts which run up further to the north are a desert of sand. Moreover, men setting forth from the Arabian Gulf in Egypt, after having sailed round the greater part of Arabia to reach the sea which washes the shores of Persis and Sousa, have returned, after sailing as far along the coast of Arabia as the water they had on board lasted them, and no further. ”

“ It is natural to suppose the same would be the case in the Arabian Gulf, had that narrow sea been in a direction parallel to the land of Egypt, or due north and south. The Arabian Gulf, however, or what we call the Red Sea, lies from nearly north-west to south-east, from Suez to Mocha. ”

“ The passage on the Arabian shore, though the narrowest and shallowest of the two, is that most frequently sailed through, and especially in the night; because, if you do not round the south-point of the island, as near as possible, in attempting to enter the broad one, but are going large with the wind favourable, you fall in with a great number of low smail islands, where there is danger. At ten o'clock, with the wind fair, our course almost north-east, we passed three rocky islands about a mile on our left. ”

“ G. Buist, in a recent communication to the Bombay Geographical Society (vol. ix.) , has asked how it happens that the Red Sea should not exceed the open ocean in saltness, by more than 1/10th per cent. The Red Sea receives no supply of water from any quarter save through the Straits of Babelmandeb; and there is not a single river or rivulet flowing into it from a circuit of 4000 miles of shore. The countries around are all excessively sterile and arid, and composed, for the most part, of burning deserts. ”

“ Should a vessel approach the entrance of this gulf, the only chance of escape for those on board is at once to alter their course and stand out to sea, for it is all over with them if they are once fairly within the womb of Barakê, which surges with vast and mighty billows, and where the sea, tossing in violent commotion, forms eddies and impetuous whirlpools in every direction. ”

“ The earth borne out of the mouths of the Nile is in part carried over the waves which throw up sea-sand on the beach, and deposited in deep water, in part drifted by the current, which sweeps east and north along the coasts of Egypt and Syria, and lodged in every nook along the shore—and among others, to the great detriment of the Suez Canal, in the artificial harbor at its northern terminus—and in part borne along until it finds a final resting-place in the north-eastern angle of the Mediterranean. ”

“ That wide field of ocean, called loosely the South Seas, extends from tropic to tropic, and from perhaps 123 degrees W. to 150 degrees E., a parallelogram of one hundred degrees by forty-seven, where degrees are the most spacious. Much of it lies vacant, much is closely sown with isles, and the isles are of two sorts. No distinction is so continually dwelt upon in South Sea talk as that between the ‘low’ and the ‘high’ island, and there is none more broadly marked in nature. The Himalayas are not more different from the Sahara. ”

“ On the west side it is deep water, with many rocks, as I have already said. On the east side, that quarter is occupied by islands, that is, sand gathered about the rocks, the causes whereof I have before mentioned; between which there are channels of very deep water, and harbours, that protect the largest ships in any winds. But among these, from Mocha down to Suez, you must sail with a pilot, and during part of the day only.
To a person used to more civilized countries, it appears no great hardship to sail with a pilot, if you can get one, and in the Red Sea there are plenty ”

“ No one can cast his eyes on the upper part of the map, but must think the Red Sea one of the most frequented places in the world. Yet I will aver, without fear of being contradicted, that it is a characteristic of the Red Sea, scarce to have soundings in any part of the channel, and often on both sides, whilst ashore soundings are hardly found a boat-length from the main. To this I will add, that there is scarce one island upon which I ever was, where the boltsprit was not over the land, while there were no soundings by a line heaved over the stern. ”

“ The rivers Jenissei and Obi, which remain frozen over until late in June, likewise discharge their vast masses of ice into the gulf of Kara, so that we can not wonder that the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, fronting a sea which opposes almost insuperable obstacles to the Arctic navigator, has remained almost totally unknown until 1833, while the western coast, exposed to the Gulf Stream, and bathed, in summer at least, by a vast open ocean, has long been traced in all its chief outlines on the map. ”

“ The wind blew the breath out of a man’s nostrils; all heaven seemed to thunder overhead like one huge sail; and when there fell a momentary lull on Aros, we could hear the gusts dismally sweeping in the distance. Over all the lowlands of the Ross the wind must have blown as fierce as on the open sea; and God only knows the uproar that was raging around the head of Ben Kyaw. Sheets of mingled spray and rain were driven in our faces. All round the isle of Aros the surf, with an incessant, hammering thunder, beat upon the reefs and beaches. ”

“ They stood for a moment, while the surf rumbled and shook the house. Then they went outside. The squall had passed. They could see the Aorai lying becalmed a mile away and pitching and tossing madly in the tremendous seas that rolled in stately procession down out of the northeast and flung themselves furiously upon the coral shore. One of the sailors from the boat pointed at the mouth of the passage and shook his head. Raoul looked and saw a white anarchy of foam and surge.
“I guess I'll stay with you tonight, Captain,” he said ”

“ One gets a good idea of the structure of the Red Sea coasts on leaving the Gulf of Suez for the voyage south, before the ship’s course passes far from land. On the western horizon is a range of wild mountains, a grey plain ending in a yellow shore-line separating them from the sea, and the off-lying islands are of the same colour. ”