44 John Hogg, Esq., on the Geography/ and 



with small black grains, and from Wadi Leja (" asylum"), 

 these colours appear most distinct. The height of the apex 

 of G. Mousa peak, which does not exceed fifty yards in width, 

 was ascertained by Lieutenant Wellsted, from the mean of 

 observations, to be 7505 feet above the sea of Akaba ; and 

 that late, able, and lamented officer, who was upon that sum- 

 mit in January, and " enjoyed the advantage of a clear 

 serene atmosphere," which, in a more advanced season of 

 the year, would have been hazy, with a blue mist, arising 

 from the powerful sun, " was thereby enabled, by means of 

 angles taken to the hills on the Arabian coast, ninety miles 

 distant, to correctly fix the geographical position of the 

 mountain." He has also well described the most extensive 

 view from that peak, as follows : — 



" The Gulfs of Suez and Akaba are distinctly visible ; from the 

 dark-blue waters of the latter, the island of Tiran, considered by the 

 ancient geographers as sacred to Isis,'^ rears itself. Mount Agrib 

 [Garib), on the other hand, points out * the land of bondage.' Be- 

 fore me is St Catherine^ its bare, conical peak now capped with snow. 

 In magnificence and striking effect, few parts of the world can sur- 

 pass the wild, naked scenery everywhere met with in the mountain- 

 chain which girds the sea-coast of Arabia."" The 



monkish " Mount Sinai itself, and the hills which compose the dis- 

 trict in its immediate vicinity, rise in sharp, isolated, conical peaks. 

 From their steep and shattered sides huge masses have been splin- 

 tered, leaving fissures rather than valleys between their remaining 

 portions. These form the highest part of the range of mountains 

 that spread out over the Peninsula, and are very generally, in the 

 winter months, covered with snow, the melting of which occasions 

 the torrents which everywhere devastate the plains below. The pe- 

 culiarities of its conical formation, render this district yet more dis- 

 tinct from the adjoining heights that appear in successive ridges be- 

 yond it, while the valleys which intersect them are so narrow that 

 few can be perceived. No villages and castles, as in Europe, here 

 animate the picture ; no forests, lakes, or falls of water, break the 

 silence and monotony of the scene. All has the appearance of a 



* Ms is supposed to be the same as lo, and the island of Tiran is evidently, 

 as I have already stated in a preceding note, that which Procopius names 

 'I«T«C», lotabe. This word is probably derived from 'lovg ra «f«T«, — the shrine, 

 or sacred place, of lo. 



