THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA BY THE ISRAELITES. 279 



merely a swamp or a Bitter Lake, but an arm of the Red Sea. 

 The phraseology of the Exodus (I do not profess to be a Hebrew 

 scholar), or rather the phraseology of our translation, is very clear 

 indeed that it was the Red Sea, and not merely a slight swamp 

 covered by a few feet of water, but was of considerable depth. And, 

 therefore, when Pharaoh was pursuing from the north-west, and the 

 Israelites were making their way by the high road into -Arabia and 

 Palestine, they " turned" as described (Ex. xiv, 2) at that point 

 southwards according to the commandment of the Lord through 

 Moses ; they were then in a cul-de-sac. They had the arm of the Red 

 Sea on the east, and they had the lofty range of Gebel Attaka 

 towards the south, and therefore it required something more than an 

 accidental east wind to clear a passage for them across this arm of 

 the Red Sea. I have given my views on this subject more fully in 

 a work entitled Mount Seir, published by the Committee of the 

 Palestine Exploration Fund. I believe there was a very con- 

 siderable arm of the Red Sea, and that it was through a miraculous 

 interposition that the Israelites were obliged to have a passage 

 hewn for them through the waters. I have listened with great 

 interest to the paper. 



The Author. — Allow me to answer a few questions, beginning 

 with the last one. I made no statement that the Bitter Lakes 

 were shallow. I distinctly stated that the Bitter Lakes at that 

 time must have had a depth of 30 feet. 



The Chairman. — I thought you said 5 feet or 6 feet. 



The Author. — No, my statement just read was as follows : 

 " This gentleman finally brings the Israelites to a point on 

 the Bitter Lake by the south light-ship, where even now there is a 

 depth of 30 feet of water, and where no huri-icane that ever blew 

 would make the place fordable." Anyone with even a very 

 elementary knowledge of geology must see at once that the 

 Mediterranean and Red Seas were at one time in communication 

 across what is now the isthmus of Suez ; later on one of the 

 branches of the Nile evidently discharged its muddy waters into 

 the then head of the Red Sea, layers of hardened mud may even 

 now be seen in cuttings, lately enlarged about Shaloof ; these 

 layers are apparently pretty regularly sandwiched in amongst beds 

 of drift sand. It was this steady supply of drift sand from the 

 eastward, which I believe first of all cut off the old head of the 

 Red Sea, at the southern shallows from the parent ocean, and 



