; 
Geology of Mount Sinai and adjacent Countries. 217 
appearance not of an open sea, but more of a long narrow 
lake, or rather, as Wellsted has described it, “of a narrow 
deep ravine” stretching above one hundred miles in a straight 
north-easterly line ; and the scenery of the dark blue waters, 
nearly surrounded by the mountains, which in places jut 
into, and in others impend over them, and extend their sum- 
mits to a considerable elevation, in some spots to 2000 feet 
perpendicularly from their shores, is represented to be ex- 
tremely bold and splendid. This, too, is highly increased by 
the exquisite colours produced by a burning eastern sun. 
Some views in the gulf are stated by the same author to sur- 
pass “‘in magnificence and extent any he had previously wit- 
nessed ;” and he adds, that their “ wild and romantic aspects 
more than compensated for the monotony so characteristic of 
desert mountain scenery.” 
Until a recent period this sea, and indeed the whole country, 
from the Strait of Tiran to the walls of Jerusalem, or at least 
to the southern borders of the Dead Sea. constituted to 
Europeans a “mare ignotum,” and a “terra incognita,” 
which became first known through the indefatigable labours 
and enterprise of MM. Burckhardt and Riippell, the latter 
having given to geographers the most accurate map of the 
Gulf of Akaba until that lately published from the surveys 
made under the authority of the East Indian Government. 
It does not appear that any great tide sets in and out of, or 
that any very rapid currents take place at the Strait of Tiran, 
or between that island and the contiguous shore of Arabia ; 
probably the depth of the sea causes a gentle and compara- 
tively equal flow of water. 
_ Wellsted mentions, that in one spot in that gulf, no bottom 
was found at 200 fathoms, so close to the beach as jifty yards ; 
and in another, several yards only from the shore near Akaba, 
the water was of “ an almost unfathomable depth.” In sailing 
up the gulf, the mountains on the right hand are much higher 
than those on the left, but they become lower towards the 
north in the approach to Hakl, before which place the more 
lofty chain turns inland. One, however, is struck by the 
absence of boats upon its surface ; this is caused by the vio- 
lence of the winds suddenly raising up huge waves, which are 
the dread of the Arab sailors in their rude vessels. 
