On (he Arabian Frontier of Eijypt. 15 



and universal interest in the eyes of ail to wliom tlie Holy 

 Scriptures are the history of religion. It was the place of 

 refuge of the Hebrew Church for more than two centuries ; 

 and, in the days of her temporary oppression, the momentous 

 events of her deliverance and Exodus were enacted there. 

 Yet the scenes of those events have hitherto remained a 

 matter of doubt and unsupported conjecture ! 



The great difficulty which Biblical critics encounter in their 

 attempts to refer the events of the Mosaic account of the 

 Exodus to any definite localities, arises from their having 

 framed their hypotheses from the land as it is now, with- 

 out taking into account the probable extent of the changes 

 wrought in its physical geography, — partly by the slow, but 

 certain operations of nature, — partly, as we shall have rea- 

 son to discover, by the interference of man. Those only who 

 are correctly informed concerning the actual state of the 

 country, can estimate the formidable difhculty of reconciling 

 the Mosaic narrative with such positions as its present topo- 

 graphy affords. The few detached and unsupported conjec- 

 tures, wholly at variance with each otlier, hitherto published 

 on the geography of the Exodus, attest both the extent of 

 tJiis difficulty, and the doubtful success of every attempt to 

 propose a theory on the subject. Before we can judge whether 

 the account of Moses can be made to square with the topo- 

 gi'aphy of the land through which he led the host under his 

 guidance ; — ^before we can appreciate, as a subject so sacred 

 and important deserves, the extraordinary geographical ac- 

 curacy of the minute detail included in that account; — we must 

 go back 3500- years, and restore the land to its primitive con- 

 dition, by inquiring into the changes that may have been 

 effected in it since then, by determining their period, and 

 ascertaining their causes. 



The results of an inquiry to this effect are embodied in the 

 map.* It differs in four essential points from any former 

 attempt to illustrate the geography of the Mosaic period. 



"- Sec Plate IV. 



