the opening of negotiations for a friendly understanding between the British Government and the Abdali Sultan. From this time on affairs became more quiet; but on the Turks conquering the interior of the Yemen in 1872—they had held a firm footing on the Red Sea coast before this period—it was found necessary to demand the withdrawal of the Osmanli forces from the tribe lands surrounding Aden. At this epoch, too, Little Aden, a sister peninsula which forms the western shore of the Aden bay, was purchased, and in 1883 British territory was extended across the isthmus, by which arrangement the entire shores of the harbour fell under the jurisdiction of the British Government. Included in this deed of purchase is the village of Sheikh Othman, now a flourishing little township, with a police station and a clock tower dominating its principal square. Bungalows have been built there and gardens laid out, and Sheikh Othman to-day presents quite a prosperous appearance, though the less said about its inhabitants, for the most part Arab dancing-girls, the better. Thus, then, the extent of territory in the possession of the British Government in the vicinity of Aden may be described as follows: Aden on the east, Little Aden on the west, and an intermediate strip along the north shore of the bay; the total area forming some seventy square miles. Of these, Aden alone is fortified. The peninsula is situated one hundred and twenty miles from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, in latitude 12° 47′ N., and longitude 45° E. It is five miles in length and three in breadth, and consists of hills of bare grey-black rock, the highest of which, Jibel Sham-sham, reaches an altitude of nearly eighteen hundred feet above the sea-level. The volcanic origin of the place is clearly demonstrated by the fact that there exists a large crater, which, owing to the broken spurs of rock by which it is surrounded, renders a greater portion of the peninsula uninhabitable. However, in such parts as are suitable for building the most has been made, and an extraordinary number of people find room to exist upon the barren rock, which of itself produces none of the necessities of life. Including the population of Sheikh Othman, the census return in 1891 was over thirty-eight thousand, whereas at the time of the British conquest in 1839 the population numbered only some six thousand.