Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/335

Rh name but Jibbel, the rock, island, or mountain, in general. You should not come within three full leagues of that rock, but leave it at a distance to the westward. You will then see shoals, which form a pretty broad channel, where you have soundings from fifteen to thirty fathoms. And again, standing on directly upon Tor, you have two other oval sands with sunken rocks, in the channel, between which you are to steer. All your danger is here in sight, for you might go in the inside, or to the eastward, of the many small islands you see toward the shore; and there are the anchoring places of the Cairo vessels, which are marked with the black anchor in the draught. This is the course best known and practised by pilots for ships of all sizes. But by a draught of Mr Niebuhr, who went from Suez with Mahomet Rais Tobal, his track with that large ship was through the channels, till he arrived at the point, where Tor bore a little to the northward of east of him.

may be known at a distance by two hills that stand near the water side, which, in clear weather, may be seen six leagues off. Just to the south-east of these is the town and harbour, where there are some palm-trees about the houses, the more remarkable, that they are the first you see on the coast. There is no danger in going into Tor harbour, the soundings in the way are clean and regular; and by giving the beacon a small birth on the larboard hand, you may haul in a little to the northward, and anchor in five or six fathom. The bottom of the bay is not a mile from the beacon, and about the same distance from the opposite shore. There is no sensible tide in the middle of the Gulf, but, by the sides, it runs full two knots an hour. At springs, it is high water at Tor nearly at twelve o'clock. Rh