In Bandr-Abas we hired a pilot to take us through the Straits of
Kishma. About noon we sailed.
The passage through these straits is without danger for steamers,
but is avoided by sailing vessels, as the space between the island
Kishma and the mainland is in parts very narrow, and the ships might
be driven on to the shore by contrary winds.
The inland forms an extended plain, and is partially covered with
thin underwood. Great numbers of people come from the neighbouring
mainland to fetch wood from here.
The captain had spoken very highly of the remarkable beauty of this
voyage, the luxuriance of the island, the spots where the sea was so
narrow that the tops of the palms growing on the island and mainland
touched each other, etc. Since the last voyage of the good captain,
a very unfrequent phenomenon would seem to have taken place--the
lofty slender palms were transformed into miserable underwood, and,
at the narrowest point, the mainland was at least half a mile from
the island. Strange to say, Mr. Ross afterwards gave the same
description of the place; he believed the captain in preference to
his own eyes.
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