THE PASSAGE OF THE KED SEA BY THE ISRAELITES. ll ^ 



suddenly turned into sea and sea into dry land. No one who has 

 not been an eye-witness of the natural configuration referred to 

 can give any acceptahle opinion upon the matter, and I, would not 

 venture to give an opinion for or against it : but it strikes mc that 

 what we have heard to-day clears up many of the doubts which 

 we might otherwise entertain. We must be ver\^ grateful indeed 

 for the excellent observations that have been made by General 

 Tullocb. 



Mr. M. RoOKt;. — I should like to ask the present depth of lake 

 Menzahleh near Port Said ? 



The Author. — It is only about 5 feet or 6 feet. 



Mr. RooKE. — Where was the water driven to ? 



The Author. — It was "packed up" to the north-west. 



Mr. RoOKB. — Could you see it in any way? 



The Author. — It was seven miles off. It had absolutely dis- 

 appeared. 



Rev. T. J. GtASTER, M.A. — I should like to point out that the 

 passage of the Israelites is said to have been by night and not by day. 



Captain Francis Petrib, F.G.S. {Hon. Sec). — M. Naville in his 

 paper* referring to this subject, cites instances of the action of wind 

 on water at Geneva ; he says, " In 1495, and again in 1645, a very 

 strong wind drove back the Rhone into the Lake as much as a 

 quarter of a league, and it looked like a wall of water . . . and the 

 inhabitants could go down on dry ground between the bridges and 

 pass from one bank to the other."t 



The CiiAiRiiAX. — ^ There can be no doubt whatever of the effect of 

 wind upon watei', when we consider that the great equatorial 

 currents which circulate round the ocean (as far as the conti- 

 nents will permit them, and which give rise to the north and 

 south currents branching off' on either hand), are due to the 



* Trans., vol. xxvi, p. 12. 



t Another traveller — the Eev. Haskett Smith — says : "But one of the 

 most curious and remaikable effects produced by a strong sirocco is that 

 which T have witnessed more than once in connection with the broad 

 and shallow expanses of water to which I have alluded. I have seeu 

 these rain deposits in the plains swept u]) into heaps by the winds, like 

 dust before a broom, laying bare the laud which had been covered, and 

 piliug up on one side of it a literal bank or wall of water." — Ed. 



