IG On the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 



1". In the limits of the Red Sea, which ]ias retired 30 miles 

 from its former head. 



2". In the Mediterranean coast region, where nearly 25 

 miles of land beyond the shore have been converted into a 

 large lake and barren unhealthy marshes. 



3'\ In the region of the river, where, besides restoring to 

 their primitive position the branches of the Nile known to 

 have changed their course or become extinct, I have intro- 

 duced another branch, unknown to ancient geography, and 

 situated on the frontier, to the east of the Pelusiac ; it is mark- 

 ed on the map as the Etham branch. 



4°. It differs in the position of the cities and sites enume- 

 rated by the Sacred historian as the stations of encamp- 

 ment. 



In our common Bible-maps, these stations are generally 

 placed at random along the line of desert between Cairo and 

 Suez. This distance, owing to the difficulty of the route, 

 would amount to a four days' journey for such a multitude, 

 encumbered with goods, children, and cattle ; and there is 

 not a spring or a well all the way. So that a track along 

 that road in physical/i/ impossible. 



Dr E. Robinson* has seen this difficulty, without obviating 

 it. He proposes another plan, liable to objections almost as 

 serious as those he has sought to avoid, and that are fatal 

 to his hypothesis. He places " Rameses," the starting-point 

 of the assembled multitude, in the Valley of Seven Wells, 

 where there is a ruin of a former frontier-city ; and pro- 

 poses to bring the Hebrew host to Suez by coasting the (so- 

 called) Bitter Lakes. But as two days of this journey would 

 be equally destitute of water, the indifferent wells at Ajrud 

 being then the only supply, the difficulty is not sufficiently 

 lessened by this hypothesis to counterbalance the unquestion- 

 able claim of the rain he takes for '• Rajieses," to i*epresent 

 quite a different place, the '■'Hero"' of the Antonine itinerary, 

 the position of which, — in respect of several other sites 

 enumerated in this itinerary, and all exactly corresponding 



* Biblical Researches in Palestine, &c., by E. Robinson, D.D., and the Rev. 

 Eli Smith, vol. i., p. 74-86. 



