Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/467

 coast range draws continually nearer to the shore, and such peaks as the Golis, the Ankor (3,700 feet), the pyramidal Hais (6,100 feet), the Aïrensit (5,300 feet), near the Yaffar pass, stand at an average distance of not more than 18 or 20 miles from the sea. The intervening space is largely occupied by rocky scarps and bluffs, leaving only here and there a few narrow strips of verdure, generally near the mouths of the watercourses.

The eastern extremity of the African "Horn" is curved by deep fissures into

a number of distinct plateaux, huge quadrangular masses above which rise a few low eminences. Thus this conspicuous continental headland is limited southwards by the rocky bed of the Togueni, which trends in the direction of the Gulf of Aden, and by another fluvial ravine which drains towards the Indian Ocean. Near the western edge of this limestone plateau rises the Jebel Karoma (Kurmo), 4,000 feet high, which still bears the name in a scarcely modified form of the "Aromatic Mountain" formerly given to it by the Greek navigators. The Gor Ali, lying more to the east, has the same altitude, while another crest close to Cape Guardafui still rises 2,500 above the sea.