VOL. LVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 285 



significative; Badeah, new thing, or miracle; Bachorel Polsiim, sea of destruc- 

 tion; convince him that the Israelites entered the sea at Badeah, and no where 

 else. Besides, all the rest of the coast from Suez, and below Badeah, is steep 

 rocks, so there must have been another miracle for them to descend: the current 

 too sets from this place, where he encamped, toward the opposite shore, into the 

 pool Birque Pharaone, Pool of Pharaoh, where, the tradition is, his host was 

 drowned; a current, formed, he supposes, by the falling and rushing of one 

 watery wall on the other, and driving it down. The Ain Mousa, which the 

 Israelites would have met with, if they had passed at Suez, and the coast from 

 hence southward, about a mile to Tor, being all rock and steep too, induce him 

 to believe that they entered the sea at Badeah, and ascended from it here, and 

 not at any other place. I only throw out what occurs to me, from the inspection 

 of the country, an inspection as accurate as I am capable of. If any thing I 

 have said can in the least support that revelation, to which I dare declare myself 

 a friend, even in this enlightened age, I shall be very happy; or if this trip of 

 mine can be of any use whatever, as I had great pleasure in it, I may truly say 

 with Horace — Omne tulit punctum, &c. 



The denomination of tjlD CDS he thinks, only regards the hierapolitic branch, 

 as the marine productions, madrepores, &c. which form admirable forests in the 

 bottom of it, are not in the elanitic branch, or the gulf; viz. the broad part 

 below Cape Mahomet. No more than that western branch was known to the 

 Israelites at the time of their passage, if it was to the Egyptians : but the name 

 descended to the whole, as their knowledge of it. The Red Sea seems to 

 regard the broad part alone; for though there are not the above-mentioned sea 

 productions, yet there is so great a quantity of tube coral (not found in the 

 western branch of the Hierapolitic gulf) and such rocks, as one may say of them, 

 that the GreJda ships fasten themselves to them, instead of casting anchor. It is 

 of a deep red; so that possibly the first navigators entering at the strait of Babel 

 Mandel, from the red they saw, called it the Red Sea, and that name descended 

 to the whole with their navigation. This sea is tempestuous and full of shoals; 

 there is no harbour on the Arabian coast after Tor, except one, viz. between 

 Suez and Gidda or Mecca, which is a day and a half from Gidda. Gidda is its 

 port; and there is only one on the other coast, Cossire; but it is a very bad one; 

 however, ships sometimes go thither, and caravans cross the country to 

 Morshout. The ships are, as the Bishop of Ossory has described them^ the 

 helm is on the outside, as I suppose, with his lordship, that of St. Paul was. 

 They make use of but four sails, and no compass, nor do they ever cast the lead. 

 They sail only by day-light, from anchoring place to anchoring place, and are 

 not above 1 days out of sight of land, from Cape Mahomet to the Arabian 

 main: if a gale happen, they are often lost; about 1 in 10 every year. 



