70 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



narrow gulf before that town, he observes, appears 

 at first sight to be only the breadth of a river in com- 

 parison with the open sea, and therefore too small 

 to have been chosen by the Almighty as the scene 

 of the manifestation of his power. This led him to 

 suppose that the Israelites must have passed at 

 some leagues southward of Suez ; an opinion which 

 he changed on measuring the breadth of the gulf at 

 that place, which he found to be 3500 feet, and far- 

 ther north it was still wider. " If the children of 

 Israel," he continues, " passed the sea at Kolzoum, 

 the miracle would indeed be less than if they crossed 

 it near Baideah. But it is a mistake to suppose that 

 the multitude could cross here without a prodigy ; 

 for even in the present day no caravan crosses here 

 in going from Cairo to Mount Sinai, notwithstanding 

 that it would materially shorten the distance. It 

 must naturally have been more difficult to the Israel- 

 ites thousands of years ago, when the gulf was prob- 

 ably broader and deeper, and extended farther north- 

 ward." This supposition of the Danish traveller 

 fairly meets the objection, that if the Israelites had 

 crossed at Suez, Pharaoh might easily have doubled 

 the point and overtaken them, without riskmg the 

 loss of his army by entering the channel in pursuit. 

 When Burckhardt left Suez the tide was at flood, 

 and he was obliged to make the tour of the whole 

 creek, which he says can be forded at low water ; 

 but in winter time, and immediately after the rainy 

 season, the circuit is rendered still greater, because 

 the low grounds to the northward, for many miles, 

 are then inundated, and become so swampy that the 

 camels cannot pass them. 



The ingenious Dr. Shaw objects to the opinion 

 which fixes the passage opposite Ayoun Mousa, on 

 the ground that the water there must have been too 

 shallow to drown so many Egyptians ; and this objec- 

 tion applies still more strongly to the theory of 

 Niebuhr. According to the first of these learned 



