in Arabia Petr^Ea &V. ^g-. 



Marble, cemented, as it were together, by thin fparry Sutures of 

 various Textures and Colours. There are likewiie a great 

 many remarkable Breaches in thefe Strata, fome of which lye 

 twenty or thirty Yards afunder, the Divifions on each Side 

 tallying exaolly with each other, and lea\'ing a deep Valley in 

 the Midft . 



Betwixt A7-//Vo and Stiez we meet with an infinite Number of ^'^' ^""""/"^ 



Pd'lfles of 



FiintsandPebbles,allof them fuperiour to theF/i?ri';?//;/e' Marble, '^'-^'-O'/''•'^• 

 aiid frequently equal to the Moca Stone, in the Variety of their 

 Figures and Reprefentat ions ". ButFo0il Shells and other the like p.psh.Us .re 

 Teftimonies of the Deluge, (except the Foifil T^w^m/l' may be stnaf ^'""' 

 reckoned as fuch) are very rare in the Mountains near Sinai 

 the Original Menβrιιum perhaps of thefe Marbles being too 

 corrofive to preferve them. Yet at Corondel , where the 

 Rocks approach nearer to our Free Stone, I found ^itwChamc-e 

 and TectuncuU, and a curious Echimis, of the Sfatagus Kind 

 but rounder and flatter. The Ruins of the fmall Village ■λίτ,ην.ύη of 

 Am el Moil fa, and the feveral Conveyances we have there for Sgij// 

 Water, are all of them full of Foffil Shells. The old Walls of 

 Suez, and the Remains that are left us of it's Harbour, are 

 likewife of the fame Materials: all of them feeming to have 

 been brought from the fame Quarry. Betwixt Siiez^cadiKairo 

 likewife, and all over the Mountains of Lyhia, every little 

 rifmg Ground and Hillock that is not covered with Sand', dif- 

 covers great Qiiantities of the Echini, as well as of the Bivalve 

 and Turbinated Shells, moft of which exactly correfpond with 

 their refpedive Families, ftill preferved in the Red Sea. 



There is no great Variety of Plants to be met with in thefe nr; f.-^ 

 Deferts. Thofe ^c^a^j-, Azarolas, Tamarisks, Oleanders/l'Zl" 

 Laureolas, yipocynums, and a few other Plants which I have 

 feen, are generally indebted to the Clift of fome barren Rock 

 or to the fandy Plains, for their Support ; and to the nightly 



\ ?ro[p.AifimH[mil. Nat. yigjpt. cap. 6. p.147.) calls thefe Pebbles SWices S'llvifcrx, in 

 quibus lapidibus filvx, herbarum, fiuticum &c. pidlx imagines ccrnuntur. 2 For the (amc 

 Rcalon the moveable Sands in the Neighbourhood of K.is Sem, in the Kingdom ofBana 

 frequently conceal a large Scene of Palm Trees, Ecbint, and other PetriHcations which o- 

 therwife arc ulually leen at that Place. Ras Sem, i. e. The Head of Pojfcn, is whit we com- 

 monly call the Pctrifyed ViUage, where, it is pretended, that thev find in different Pofturcs 

 and Attitudes, Men, Women and Children, their Cattle alfo. Food, Houihold-Stuff &c 

 turned into Stone. But there is nothing at this Place beiides fuch Remains of the Dehigc 

 as are common at other Places : all other Stories being vain and idle, as I was fully initruft- 

 cd, not only by M. LeM.ihe, who, when Conful at Tripoly, fent feveral Pcrions to make 

 Difcovenes, but alio by two grave ienfiblc Perfons, who had been upon the Spot. 



Dddddx Dews, 



