[68]“Mersa” in Arabic = anchorage.
[69]Arabic Hamâma = pigeon. The shape of this hill is a cone with a cubical block on its apex, hence the appropriate name Pigeon Hill. “Khor” is used for an inlet of the sea, among other meanings.
[70]Actually many of these shells retain some of their colour! e.g. the red of the common Spondylus, the bands of Strombus fasciatus and the mottlings of Cyprina tigrina are quite distinct on some specimens from 100 feet above, and on others dug out 15 feet below sea level.
[71]All the corals are of existing species, but the identification is less easy than in the case of the shells.
[72]Such fossils as are found in the Equatorial rocks are recent species, and the fault harbours of the coast have not had time to lose altogether the peculiar characters of such structures under the influence of the rivers which enter them and the strong tidal currents.
[73]The gypsum often found between the sandstone and the coral was most probably formed by the drying up of a shallow sea which occupied the site before the Rift Valley appeared, and probably the sandstones are the sediments deposited in the same sea; also parts of the present maritime plain were formed as the shore deposits of this ancient sea.
[74]The forms Salak and Shalak are both used by the natives.
Cambridge University Press
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The Land of the Blue Poppy. Travels of a Naturalist in Eastern Tibet. By F. Kingdon Ward, B.A., F.R.G.S. With 40 plates and 5 maps. Royal 8vo. 12s net.