Geology of Mount Sinai and adjacent Countries. 61 



Further south, more copper mines are seen in a bare place, 

 among low hills, all of which have been examined for the 

 ore. 



Advancing south-eastwards by the plain, some calcareous 

 rocks are passed, and afterwards a line of sandstone,* with 

 limestone over it, running parallel to, and nearly equidistant 

 between the two primitive ridges. Wadi-el-Enned succeeds 

 to the eastward, where a beautifully clear rivulet is found ; 

 but its water is too bad for the use of animals, being chiefly 

 serviceable for the nourishment of numerous date palms. 

 This spot lies at the foot of some limestone hills of the creta- 

 ceous series that join the eastern ^ramVe'c ridge. 



Next, on the south, comes Gebel Kuffra, where the water 

 is so salt as only to be drunk by camels. Qebel Dochan, 

 (smoke) — the " Mons Porphyrites" of the ancients — rising 

 about eleven miles more southward, and in the same line with 

 the supposed site of Mi/os Hormus, Mu^s "Osfiog, the " mouse 

 harbour,'' is too distant from our proposed limits, to receive 

 a full description in the present Memoir. I will only remark 

 that at Mount Dochan, there exist some interesting ruins, and 

 " those vast quarries , from which Rome took so many superb 

 pieces q^ porphyry, to adorn her baths and porticoes."! On its 

 southern side, Mr J. Wilkinson adds, " we met with some 

 Breccia Verde ; and of other kinds of Breccia we had observ- 

 ed gi*eat quantities and varieties at Dochan." The sea-shore, 

 about Myos Hormus, is bare and deserted ; to the west, at 

 some distance from the harbour, the granitic chain extends ; 

 pn the east, between it and the sea, a low ridge of limestone 

 hills, which unites with the primitive rocks on the north, 

 comes down towards the shore. *' And, in the distance, on 

 the north, is seen the mountain El Zeit, so called from the 

 quantity o^ petroleum found there ; whence project two small 



* Mr J. Wilkinson {ibidy Note, p. 41), says, " Judging from the angle of its 

 dip, it formerly rose over the lower, or eastern primitive range, from which, 

 however, it is now separated by a valley, or bed of a torrent." 



t Ihid, p. 42. — Pliny writes of the quarries, " quantislibet molibus caedendis 

 sutliciunt Lapidicince.^^ Lib. 36, cap. 7. They produced red porphyry of tk 

 most beautiful, close-grained kind ; so Pliny says, " rubet porphyrites. in eadem 

 (Egypto." 



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