398 



NATURAL HISTORY OP ARABIA. 



existed in many other points of the mountain-ridge be- 

 tween Syria and Yemen. Ali Bey remarked seven groups 

 of volcanic hills near Jedeida, which were entirely black, 

 and had the appearance of very picturesque ruins. The 

 islands of Kotembel and Gebel Tar, in the Red Sea, have 

 been already noticed as exhibiting traces of eruptions now 

 extinct ; and travellers have remarked that the rocky pe- 

 ninsula on which Aden is situated resembles the frag- 

 ment of a volcano, the crater of which is covered by the 

 sea.* 



Hot Springs. The fountains already mentioned, called 

 Ayoun Mousa or the Wells of Moses, are lukewarm and 

 sulphureous, boiling up three or four inches above the 

 surface, as if they were agitated below by some violent 

 heat. The water brings up the sand with it ; yet the in- 

 habitants about the place drink it in preference to the 

 brackish springs near Suez. Pococke says, that the ground 

 around them is like a quagmire, and dangerous if ap- 

 proached too near. Several of these springs appeared to 

 be dried up : one only affords sweet water ; but it is so 

 often rendered muddy by the camels of the Arabs, that it 

 is rarely fit to supply the wants of the thirsty traveller. 

 The waters of Hammam Faraoun or Baths of Pharaoh, 

 near Wady Gharendel, are extremely hot. Shaw was as- 

 sured that an egg might be boiled hard in one minute ; 

 but he had no opportunity of making the experiment 

 himself. These baths lie within a cavern or grotto in 

 the rock, and have a low narrow entrance leading to them. 

 " As soon as one enters this passage," says Pococke, 

 " there is heat enough to make any body sweat very 

 plentifully, and many people have died that have gone 

 as far as the water, by a vapour that extinguishes the 

 lights. The water runs through the rocks and sandbanks 

 in a great number of little streams into the sea for a quar- 

 ter of a mile, and it is even there exceedingly hot, and so 

 are the stones, which are encrusted with a white substance, 

 apparently of salt and sulphur." This traveller gives an 

 analysis of the fluid, which was found to be impregnated 

 with much earthy gross sulphur, a neutral salt, a small 

 quantity of alum, but no vitriol. The taste is nauseous ; 

 but its virtues are much esteemed in cutaneous and ner- 

 vous disorders, as also for removing sterility. The pa- 



Vol. i. p. 72. Valentia's Travels, vol. ii. p. 86. 



