ON THE tiUnVKY Ol" KA^TMUN I'.U.I-STINE. 



21 :) 



Smi, to whom it. i-s only tlno to say tJmt they did everything; in their 

 pov.ci' I'or the eonitbro and wil'ety of the inend)iT,s of llio expedition. A 

 renilc/.vous ol'the whole piirty, ineliidin!,' condiicloi-, di-iisroman, Jind Ai-ahn 

 of tli(> Towara tril)e. took |iliice at Cairo on tlie 7lh of Xovotnl)er, JHS;!, 

 iuid oil Monday, the lltli of Mie same month, tho party started lor their 

 desert jonrney IVoni .Moses' Wells ('.Vynn .Miisa), near Sue/-. 



' TIk! route taken lay alon^' the [)lain hoi'dering the (Inlf oC Suez to 

 Wady Ghaniiidel, and thejiee Ity the Wadies Hamr, Snwit,', and Xash, 

 [{•Ilk, Lehwey, JJerrali, and l-Is Sheikh, to the haso ol' Monnt Sinai (Jehel 

 Masii). Tlienee. after a lew diiys. in a noi'th-easterly din^ctioii by tho 

 Wadies /ide^^'ah, Hiyar, VA Ain, Kt Tihyah, and Has on Nakb to Akabalj. 



' Heri> the .Vialis of the Towara trilte who had conveyed tho partytlius 

 far wei'o dismissed ; and airunLji'ments wei-e entered into with tho Sheikhs 

 of the Alouins for a eonvoy alons; tla? Wady (1 Arahah to I'otra, and tlm 

 shore of the Sidt Sea (Hahr Ijut). This havinj; been elll'eteil, tho ]iart.y 

 left Akal)ah on the iird of December; and after visitins; I'etra, Monut 

 Jhir (.leliel Ifaronn), and .several of t'ho branchin<j; valleys on either side, 

 reached V.s Saiieh on the 17th of the same month, and oampod by the 

 villau;(; of tlie (Ilia wariu lis, wlu're they remained ten days, includinj; 

 Cliristnias Day. Jlorses and mnlos havint; at length arrived from 

 Jc'iisalem, aee(unpanied by a small escort of Turkish cavalry, tho party 

 crossed to the western shore of the Salt Sea. and after e.vamining Khas- 

 liam (or Jebel) Usdum (the salt mountain), ascended by the Wady 

 Znwoirah towards the table-laiid of Southern Palestine, camping succes- 

 sively at, Wady el Abd, Tel el ^felh, Hir es Saba (Boorsheba), Tel Abu 

 Tlnreireh, and rcaehing (Jaza on tho lastday of the year. Hero tho party 

 woidd have been obliged to remain in quarantine for fifteen days but fur 

 tho friendly ofljces of Lord DuH'erin, the British And)a3sador at Constan- 

 tinople, who i)rocured their release on tho morning of tho fifth day. They 

 then proceeded onwards by Jaffa to Jerusalem, whencn excursions 

 were made to the.h)rdan Valley, and other ])lacps around, and by which 

 two complete traverses of Southern and Central Palestine were effected. 

 The whole distance traversed was about 7U0 miles, of which .'')00 uules 

 were on camel-back, the remainder on horseback. A final ex])editiou 

 through Northern Palestine was then arranged for, but was brought to an 

 end bv a heavy fall of snow, which covered the whole of the table-land of 

 I'alestino to a depth of two feet and uj)wards. The juirty left Jafllii on 

 tlieii' return to England on Fi-iday, January '2'), Major Kitchener having 

 previously returned to lOgypt. 



' Scieiifiji'f Ju-sidls'. — Before proceeding to give an oullinoofthe scieiitilic 

 results of the expedition, the autluu* desires to express his obligations to 

 the writings of previous explorers in the same field, especially to those of 

 Rii.sseger, Fraas, Tristram, and of J\[i\r. Lartet and Vigne<, of the expedi. 

 tion carried out by the Due de Luynes. 



' 1. A complete triannrulation of the district lying between tlio moun- 

 tains of Sinai and the Wady el Arabah, including that of the Wady el 

 Arnhah itself, bounded on tho west by tho table-land of the Tib, and on 

 tlie east by the mountains of Edom and INIoab. An outline survey along 

 tlie lino of route was also made, and has been laid down in MS. on a map 

 prepared by Mr. Armstrong on tho sanu> s'cale as the reduced !Map of 

 Palestine, viz. g inch to one ■atut(; mile, or |„,s'i,(,,,- 



' 2. Some important recnticationa of tho borders of ihe Salt Sea, and 

 of the Gulf of Akabah, wei-o also made. 



ISS'i. T 



