OF THE UNIVERSE. THE ARABIANS. 207 



denomination of Arabia Felix, which we find first employed 

 by Diodorus and Strabo, was given. On the south-east 

 of the peninsula, on the Persian Gulf, the town of Gerrha, 

 situated opposite to the Pho3nician settlements of Aradus 

 and Tylus, formed an important mart for the traffic 

 in Indian goods. Although almost the whole of the in- 

 terior of Arabia may be termed a treeless sandy desert, 

 yet there exist in Oman (between Jailan and Batna), a 

 chain of oases, watered by subterranean canals; and we 

 owe to the activity of the meritorious traveller Wellsted, ( 318 ) 

 the knowledge of three mountain chains, of which the lof~ 

 tiest summit, Djebel Akhdar, rises, clothed with forests, to 

 an elevation of more than six thousand feet above the level 

 of the sea. There are also in the mountain country of 

 Yemen, east of Lopeia, and in the littoral chain of Hedjaz 

 in Asyr, as well as east of Mecca near Tayef, elevated 

 plains, of which the constantly low temperature was known 

 to the geographer Edrisi. ( 319 ) 



The same variety of mountain landscape characterises the 

 peninsula of Sinai, the " copper land" of the Egyptians of 

 the " ancient kingdom" (before the time of the Hyksos), and 

 the rocky valleys of Petra. I have already spoken, in a 

 preceding section, ( 32 ) of the Phoenician tracing settlements 

 on the most northern part of the Red Sea, and the voyages 

 to Ophir of the ships of Hiram and Solomon, which sailed 

 from Ezion Geber. Arabia, and the adjacent island of 

 Socotora (the Island of Dioscorides), inhabited by Indian 

 settlers, were the intermediate links of the traffic of the 

 world with India and the east coast of Africa. The produc- 

 tions of these countries were commonly confounded with 

 those of Hadramaut and Yemen. "We read in the prophet 



