in Arabia Petrcea ^'cl og^ 



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

 various Textures and Colours. There are likewife a great 

 many remarkable Breaches in thefe Strata, fome of which lye 

 twenty or thirty Yards afunder, the Divifions on each Side 

 tallying exadlily with each other, and leaving a deep Valley in 

 the Midft. 



Betwixt Kairo and Suez we meet with an infinite Number of ^'^'/;^''"J^'^ 



I'cbbles of 



Flints and Pebbles,all of them fuperiour to theF/ore';///;/^' Marble, '^^'^^^^-Z''^'^'"- 

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

 Figures and Reprefentations '. ButFofiil Shells and other the like p^jjusheUs art 

 Teftimoniesof the Tfeluge, (except theFoflil7>2w^m/^ may bes|;;'„f ^"''''' 

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

 the Original Men/iruum perhaps of thefe Marbles being too 

 corrofive to preferve them. Yet at Corondel ^ where the 

 Rocks approach nearer to our Free Stone, I found a few Chantie 

 and Te&unculiy and a curious Echim^s, of the Spatagus Kind 

 but rounder and flatter. The Ruins of the fmall Village ^tuewaihof 

 Atn elMonfa, and the feveral Conveyances we have there forlj/M"^ 

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

 SueZy 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 Suez and Kairo 

 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 exa(5tly correfpond with 

 their relpeftive Families, ftill preferved in the Red Sea. 



There is no great Variety of Plants to be met with in thefe ^-.77 /^tp 

 Deferts. Thofe Acacias, Azarolas, Tamarisks, Oleanders, Su? 

 LaureolaSy Apocynums, 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 



I Profp. Alpinus (Hift. Nat. yEgjpt. cap. 6. p.147.) calls thefe Pebbles Silkcs Silvifcra, in 

 quibus lapidibus fijvx, hcrbarum, fruticum &c. pidoe imagines cernuntur. 2 For the fame 

 Rcafon the moveable Sands in the Neighbourhood of Ras Sent, in the Kingdom oiBarca, 

 frequently conceal a large Scene of Pdm Trees, Echini, and other PetriHcations, which o- 

 thcrwife arc ufually feen at that Place. Ras Sew, i.e. The Head of Pojfoii, is what we com- 

 monly call the Pctrtfyed Village, where, it is pretended, that they find in different Poftures 

 and Attitudes, Men, Women and Children, their Cattle alfo. Food, Hou/liold-StufF, &c. 

 turned into Stone. But there is nothing at this Place befides fuch Remains of the Deluge 

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

 ed, not only by M. LeMaire, who, when Conful at Tripoly, fent feveral Perlbns to make 

 Difcoveries, but alio by two grave fenfiblc Perfons, who had been upon the Spot. 



Pddddx Dews, 



