30 EDOUARD NAVILLE ON 



Israelites in their flight towards the south would have had 

 either to climb over the mountains, or to follow a narrow 

 track, if there was any, between the sea and the mountains, 

 where they would have been easily destroyed.* Josephus 

 alludes twice to the fact that they had in front steep moun- 

 tains projecting into the sea, and that they were shut up 

 between the sea and mountains. Seen from a distance of 

 a few miles, the mountains would produce on the Israelites 

 the same effect as they do now on travellers ; they would 

 appear as entirely barring the way, even if there was an 

 open path along the sea, which is doubtful, and it explains 

 the despair of the Israelites described by Scripture and 

 Josephus. 



The site which I assign for the passage of the Red Sea agrees 

 with the views of Linant, Liebleiu, and Lesseps. These 

 three authorities admit that the passage took place north of 

 the Bitter Lakes, in the space which divides them from Lake 

 Timsah, not far from the present Serapeum. I believe this 

 is in accordance not only with the monuments, but also with 

 Ihe aspect of the country ; and I advise the numerous 

 travellers who go through that region, so full of glorious 

 remembrances, to look at it in that light. | 



The Right Rev. Bishop Stalky, D.D. — I have the pleasure given 

 me to-night of asking you to express your obligation to the power- 

 ful writer of the Address, whose absence we all regret, and also to 

 all the authors of the Papers read this session. Dr. Naville's is a 

 remarkable Paper, in that it seems to lessen so completely the 

 difficulties which the author himself feels cannot be entirely 

 eluded in the story which we have, without any elucidation, given 

 in its naked form, in the book of Exodus. He endeavours to 

 show from evidence which I think is irrefutable, that the relative 

 position of Pharaoh and the Israelites was somewhat different 

 from that asserted by some previous writers who have endeavoured 

 to illustrate the subject, and thus deprives it of certain difficulties 

 which have been put forward. It seems clear that the wind and 

 sea were instruments in God's providence for accomplishing the 



* Linant, 1.1., p. 205. 



+ " Journal of the Victoria Institute," Vol. xxi., p. 21. 



