Geology of Mount Sinai and adjacent Countries. 201 
In Wadi-el-Naszb the remains of old copper mines have 
been noticed, as also in Wadi Maghara; and near these oc- 
curs the mineral named in Arabic, E/-Kohal, Kohol, or Kohl, 
which is antimony. At the head of Wadi Sawuk are beds 
or veins of greenstone. Wadi Kamileh consists of sandstone, 
though, at its junction with Vadi-el-Seth, it is succeeded by 
greenstone, porphyry, and disintegrated granite. 
Again, upon the arid and sandy plain before described, near 
the Birket Faroun or ‘‘ Pharaoh’s Pool,” Wadi Shellal or 
the “ Valley of Cataracts” opens ; thence, the difficult pass, 
Nakb-el- Butera of Lepsius, the Badera of Burckhardt, and 
Buderah of others, which is of sandstone, leads to Wadi-el- 
Sittere, the latter traveller’s “‘ Seyh Szeder,”’ where the sand 
rocks present abrupt cliffs, 20 or 30 feet high ; large masses 
having separated themselves from the sides, lie at their base 
in the valley. These are thickly covered with inscriptions in 
the strange Shemitic characters. 
From hence, the well-known and remarkable Wadi Mukat- 
_teb, meaning, in Arabic, the “ Written Valley,” is entered ; 
the rocks there are also of a red sandstone, consisting of 
quartz grains mixed with mica; they, as in Wadi-el-Sittere, 
are everywhere inscribed in the same unknown letters. Pro- 
ceeding along Wadi Firan, Burckhardt* says he “ met with a 
kind of basaltic tufa, forming low hills covered with sand ;” 
then he observed the road to be “overspread with silex’’ 
(flints), and the chain of granite mountains, commencing on 
the north-east, continued parallel with the road. On the 
south-west side, before coming to Wadi Romman, the sand- 
stone ends, and granite begins ; but between that valley and 
El Hessue, the formation is principally gneiss. From the 
last place, Wadi Firan assumes a more cheerful aspect, and 
a stream of pure water, flowing through a great part of the 
year, loses itself there in a cleft in the rocky ground, after 
having irrigated the valley above for several miles. This 
Wadi tends in a south-east direction, and after passing the 
isolated mountain named El] Bueb, it joins Wadi-el-Sheikh, 
which then proceeds more eastwards, and leads to the pre- 
* Syria, p. 620. 
