Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/468

 The famous headland itself, variously known to the Arabs as the Ras Assir and Jard-Hafûn, and to the Somali natives as the Girdif, Girdifo, or Yardaf, whence the Guardafui of European navigators, consists of a nearly vertical rocky wall rising to a height of about 900 feet above its surf-beaten base. So deep is the water at this point that vesnels might easily double the headland by keeping close inshore. Nevertheless there are few places where shipwrecks are comparatively more frequent, and where the pilot has to take his soundings more carefully in order to avoid a disaster. Hence the name of the cape has been often explained, in defiance of etymology, as derived from the Italian word "guarda," which in the lingua franca of the Levant has the sense of "beware."

During the south-west monsoon the surrounding waters are generally rough, the atmosphere is heavily laden with moisture, and the horizon is veiled in dense fogs and vapour. The marine currents are also very strong, and change their direction suddenly in the vicinity of the coast, at one time setting landwards, at another towards the high sea. Hence in the midst of these conflicting elements the navigator scarcely feels himself free from peril until he reaches depths of 30 or 40 fathoms. When a ship runs aground, the current with which it has drifted leewards almost invariably carries it to the south of the headland. Here it is generally again stranded on the shore of a creek well known to mariners, where the Somali wreckers await their prey.

Some 90 miles to the south of Cape Guardafui, another much dreaded promontory, the Uas Hafûn or Meduddu, projects seawards. This headland is formed by a quadrangular rocky islet with precipitous walls, whose summit develops an undulating table or plateau, with ridges ranging from 400 to 600 feet in height. The island is connected with the mainland by a low isthmus about 12 miles long, and overgrown with stunted brushwood. Thus are formed two open bays north and south of the isthmus, like the north and south sands at Scarborough, where the Arab craft ride at anchor alternately according to the direction of the monsoons. Owen mentions a local tradition to the effect that the Portuguese had begun to cut a canal between the two bays, in order to transform the island to an impregnable fortress.

The upheaval of the sandy spit connecting the Ras Hafûn with the adjacent coast may perhaps be due to a general phenomenon of oscillation going on all along this seaboard, for in many places old marine beaches are observed strewn with banks of fossil shells, and at some points penetrating far into the interior of the continent. The whole of this section of the coast is rock-bound except about the mouths of the torrents by which the shore-line is here and there interrupted. For a distance of over 300 miles to the south of Ras Hafûn, the seaboard is designated by the characteristic name of Barr-el-Khassain, that is to say, "Rugged band," or region of rocks. According to Owen's suggestion, this very term Khassain may perhaps be the same that appears under a corrupt form in the word Azania, already employed by the ancient Greeks, and in the expression "Land of Anjan," which occurs on the old maps.

The height of the cliffs along the coast ranges from 200 to about 400 feet, and