162 REPORT— 1873. 



ticaMe to fix on any one of its lofty peaks as being incontestably the true Mount 

 Sinai. The Ordnance Survey of the peninsula recently completed, however ahly 

 performed, has failed to remove the doubts and difficulties attending the subject, 

 which have thrown discredit on the truth of the Bible history ; for, though the 

 topography of the peninsula has thereby been definitively settled, the relative 

 importance of the various localities and their bearing on the Scripture narrative 

 continue just as uncertain as ever. 



According to Dr. Beke, the cause of this uncertainty is obvious. The primary 

 question ought not to be whether this peak or the other peak within the penin- 

 sula has the greater claim to be considered the true Mouut Sinai, but whether 

 they are any of them entitled to that distinction. In his work ' Origines Biblicpe,' 

 published in 1834, he contended that Mount Sinai is nowhere within that penin- 

 sula ; and in the present paper he adduces proofs that this mountain is in reality a 

 volcano, now extinct, situate within the Harm Riuljld, a region of igneous origin, 

 situate on the western side of the Scriptural " Land of Midian," now the great 

 Arabian desert, and at no great distance to the east of the head of the Gulf of 

 Akaba, or Sea of Edom, which (and not the Gulf of Suez) he looks on as the Red 

 Sea through which the Israelites passed on their exodus from the Lantl of 

 Bondage — the Mitzraim of Scripture not being identical with the Egypt of the 

 Ptolemies, but lying altogether towards the north-east of it, in proximity to the 

 country of the Philistines. 



At the time of the Exodus Mount Sinai was in a state of eruption, the smoke 

 and flame from its crater being described by the sacred historian as " by day a 

 pillar of a cloud, and by night a pillar of tire," just as the poet Pindar speaks of 

 Mount Etna as pouring forth " by day a burning stream of smoke, but by night a 

 ruddy eddying flame ; " and the volcano was not extinct in the time of the prophet 

 Elijah, six centuries later. 



Dr. Beke traces the route of the Israelites from Rameses to Succoth, and thence 

 to Etham, which he identifies with the Wady Yetoum or Ithem of the present 

 day, a side valley of the Wady Arabah, at the head of the Gulf of Akaba. From 

 Etham the Israelites turned, and (as Dr. Beke reads the Hebrew text of Exodus 

 xiv. 21) they encamped " before the mouths of the caverns, between the castle 

 and the sea, over against its north end," the Castle thus mentioned being now 

 represented by the Castle of Akaba at the north end of the Gulf. And after the 

 Israelites had passed through the sea, their further route is traced to jNIarah, Elim, 

 and again to the sea-coast at the entrance to the Gulf of Akaba ; whence they 

 proceeded in the direction of JMount Sinai, being guided by the pillar of a cloud 

 and the pillar of fire during this portion of their journey, as they had been in that 

 between Succoth and Etham. For a detailed statement of his views Dr. Beke 

 referred to his pamphlet, ' Mount Sinai a Volcano,' recently published. In con- 

 clusion he expressed his desire to visit the volcanic region to the east of the head 

 of the Gulf of Akaba, where he places the true Mount Sinai, for the purpose of 

 verifying and completing his identification of that " holy ground," and so putting 

 an end, once and for ever, to the doubts and difficulties that have so long existed 

 respecting this the most venerable spot on the face of the earth ; and it not being 

 in his power to perform so costly a journey at his own expense, he expressed his 

 confident hope of support from those interested in the settlement of so momentous 

 a question. 



On the Physical Geociraphy of the Deserts of Persia and Central Asia. 

 By W. T. Blanfoed, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 



The deserts of Persia consist of vast plains of aUuvium, usually much longer than 

 they are broad, sm-rouuded on all sides by higher OTound, and "in several instances 

 having a portion of theii- surface covered "by salt. No river emerges from any part 

 of the Persian plateau. All the rain which faUs is evaporated or absorbed. Most 

 of the streams from the hills which sm-round the central plateau terminate in salt 

 ■marshes. or salt lakes ; but there are two remarkable exceptions, the lake or marsh 

 of Seistan receiving the Helmund river and the lake of Jotcha, which is in Russian 

 territory : both of these are fresh; 



