182 INTRODUCTIOX TO CONCHOLOGY. 



Various conjectures have been hazarded respecting the 

 means by which the Israehtes were supported during their 

 rapid flight from Egypt, as we are informed in the sacred 

 volume that "the people took their dough before it was 

 leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their 

 clothes upon their shoulders/' and that " they were thrust 

 forth out of Egypt, and would not tarry, neither had they 

 prepared for themselves any victuals/" 



Pere Sicard conjectures, with great probability, that the 

 edible snail furnished a considerable portion of their food. 

 This gentleman, in company with M. Eronton, took the 

 very same journey as that pursued by tlie children of Israel, 

 in their departure from Egypt. It lay through a valley 

 between Mount Diouchi and Mount Torah, and leads to 

 the shore of the Red Sea, opposite Mount Sinai. The 

 following is an extract from his interesting narrative. — 



"Although the children of Israel must have consisted 

 of above two millions of souls, with baggage, and in- 

 numerable flocks and herds, they were not hkely to ex- 

 perience any inconvenience in their march. Several thousand 

 persons might walk abreast with the greatest ease, in the 

 very narrowest part of the valley, in which they first began 

 to file off. It soon afterwards expands to above three 



