204 John Hogg, Esq., on the Geography and 
stone as that which prevails over the Desert El Tyh, by Ge- 
bel Watah, and breaks off by the plain near the well of 
Morkha. Crossing the more southern part of the Araba 
range, the head of the vast plain El Kaa is entered upon ; 
this, commencing at the western foot of Gebel Serbal, con- 
tinues with a gentle slope, without interruption, to the south 
extreme of the Peninsula. It is some miles in width, varying 
a good deal in places, and is perfectly bare and arid. Its 
geological formation I will afterwards more particularly de- 
scribe, and will here only observe, that it consists of beds of 
diluvial gravel, or of stones and rocks brought down by the 
winter torrents from the many Wadis, which open into it, 
and of sand, in part carried by the winds from those valleys, 
and in part drifted from the shores of the Gulf of Suez. 
Travelling along this plain from the southern end of Gebel 
Araba on the west, and Wadi Dachade, under the Serbal, on 
the east, a strip of the same Sinai sandstone is found, ac- 
cording to Russegger, on both sides, on that which adjoins 
the granitic formation on the east, as well as on that next 
the coast, which I have called, following Dr Lepsius’s map, 
Abu Suera. 
Here, near its south termination, Gebel Narkus, or the 
“ Bell Mountain,” is situate not far from the sea, from which 
a sandy plain slightly ascends to its base. Lieutenant Well- 
sted has given a neat lithographed view of it, and he describes 
its height as about 400 feet, and the material of which it is 
composed, a light-coloured friable sandstone. A mass, or 
rather an inclined plane, of very fine sand, rising at an angle 
of 40° with the horizon, rushes down in portions at times, and 
causes hollow sounds that the Arabs compare to the ringing of 
bells. That author has given an account of the sounds he 
heard on the spot, and also some remarks in furtherance of 
the explanation of them.* 
The adjoining range, or Gebel Hemam (“ death”), a lime- 
stone chain from 200 to 300 feet high, extends for about ten 
miles up to the north extreme of the Bay of Tur. Here, about 
* Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, vol. ii, p. 26. 
