Meanwhile, in the north-west and south-west we saw--rare thing in Arabia!--Iris holding two perfect bows at the same time, not to speak of "wind dogs." Zephyrus, the wester, here a noted bad character, rose from his rocky couch strong and rough, beating down the mercury to 56 degrees F.: after an hour he made way for Eurus; and the latter was presently greeted by Boreas in one of his most boisterous and blustering moods. We steamed off, with only a single stoppage for half an hour to cool the engine-bearings, at 7.30 a.m.; and, after one mile we passed, on the Arabian side, a ruin called Kasr el-Bint--"the Girl's Palace." Beyond it lies the Kasr el-Bedawi, alias El-Burayj ("of the Little Tower or Bastion"), the traditional holding-pier of the great chain. When Wellsted (ii. 146) says, "Here (i.e. at the Kasr el-Bedawi), I am told, there is a chain extending from the shore to a pier built in the sea"--he evidently misunderstood the Arabs. The eastern coast of El-'Akabah begins with an abrupt mountain-wall, like that which subtends the whole of the Sinai shore, till it trends south of the Mí'nat el-Dahab. After three miles the heights fall into a stony, sandy plain, which rises regularly as a "rake," or stage-slope, to the Shará' (Seir) range, which closes the horizon. After two hours and forty five minutes we passed into the fine, open, treacherous Bay of "Hagul" (El-Hakl), distant thirteen knots from El-'Akabah Fort, to which it is the nearest caravan-station. On the north-east, and stretching eastward, are the high "horse," or dorsum, and the big buttresses of the long, broad Wady, which comes winding from the south-east. They appear to be a body of sand; but, as usual on this coast, the superficial sheet, the skin, hardly covers the syenite and porphyritic trap that form the charpente. Between west and south, a long spit, high inland, and falling low till where its sandstone blufflet meets the sea, proves to be the base of a large and formidable reef, which extends in verdigris patches over the blue waters of the bay. It is not mentioned by Wellsted (ii. 149), who describes "Ha'gool on the Arabian shore," as "a small boat-harbour much exposed to the northerly winds." The embouchure of the Wady nourishes four distinct clumps of date-trees, well walled round; a few charred and burnt, the most of them green and luxuriant. These lines are broken by the channels which drain the surface water; and between the two western sections appear the ragged frond-huts. Not a soul was seen on shore.