280 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IjQt). 



this, which the Mecca pilgrims go, and one to the south, between the moun- 

 tains, but never travelled, as it does not lead to Suez, to which it is 30 hours 

 march from Cairo. Through this breach the children of Israel are said to have 

 entered the mountains, and not to have taken the most southern road: which he 

 thinks most probable : for those valleys, to judge by what now appears, could 

 not be passable for Pharaoh's chariots. At Suez he found an opportunity of 

 going to Tor by sea, which he gladly embraced, that by going nearer the place 

 at which the Israelites are supposed to have entered the gulf, and having a view 

 from the sea, as well of that as of the opposite shore, he might be a little better 

 able to form a judgment about it. Here it is high water always when the moon 

 is at her meridian height, and it ebbs 6 hours. At Suez, it flows () feet; the 

 spring tides are Q; and in the variable months, from the beginning of November 

 to the end of April, sometimes 12. From the beginning of May to the begin- 

 ning of October, a northerly wind generally rises, and goes down with the sun; 

 it is often very strong. This wind never fails in these months, unless there be 

 some violent storm ; the rest of the year the winds are variable, and when they 

 blow hard at s. and s. s. e. these winds set up the sea through the narrow strait 

 of Babel Mandel, and up this gulf through its mouth, between Gk^bel El Zait, 

 on the west side of this sea, and the southernmost point of the bay of Tor, on 

 the east side of this western branch of this sea, where it is not above 12 or 14 

 miles over. Probably such a wind, hindering the water from going out, causes 

 this extraordinary increase in the spring tides. The same thing happens with 

 the same winds at Venice, both gulfs running nearly in the same direction. 



The Egyptian, western, or Thebaic shore, from Badeah southward to oppo- 

 site Tor, on the eastern shore, is all mountainous,' and steep; and at Elim, the 

 northernmost point of the bay of Tor, ends the ridge of mountains, which 

 begin on the eastern shore of this western branch at Karondel. The garden of 

 the Monks of Mount Sinai at Elim renders in dates, &c. 20,000 piastres per 

 ann. or j£^2,500. Thence they crossed the plain, in about 8 hours, and entered 

 the mountains of Sinai. They are of granite of different colours. At the en- 

 trance of the narrow breach, through which they passed, he saw, on a large 

 loose granite stone, an inscription in unknown characters, given he thinks by 

 Dr. Pocock, bishop of Ossory; however, as the Israelites had no writing, that 

 we know of, when they passed here, he did not think it of consequence enough 

 to stop for : they arrived at the convent of Mount Sinai, after the usual dif- 

 ficulties mentioned by other travellers, were received as usual, and saw the usual 

 places. The monks were far from owning that they had ever meddled with the 

 print of the foot of Mahomet's camel. He examined it narrowly, and no 

 chissel has absolutely ever touched it, for the coat of the granite is entire and 

 unbroken in every part ; and every body knows, that if the coat of less hard 



