630 report— 1878. 



MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1878. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Land of Midian. By Captain R. F. Burton, R.B.M. Consul, Trieste. 



The kingdoms of Zibah and Zalrnunna have hitherto been vaguely and 

 erroneously laid down. The wandering tribes still apply the term Arz Madyan 

 (land of Midian) to the maritime strip, 108 miles long, bounded north by the head of 

 the Akabah Gulf, and south by the Wady Suit, the great waterless river-bed upon 

 which the fort El-Muwaylah is built. But Captain Burton also proposes a South 

 Midian beginning at the latter point, extending 105 miles, and ending at the Wady 

 Hamz (N. lat. 25° 55'), where the Egyptian and Ottoman possessions meet. 

 Thus the latitudinal length of the Midianite seaboard is 21.3 miles, which the 

 windings of the coast prolong to 300. The inner depth is determined by the Shafah 

 line of sub-maritime mountains defining the eastern frontier. Politically spealdng, 

 the country all belongs to the Khediv of Egypt, whose predecessors have gar- 

 risoned the two forts El-'Akabah and El-Muwaylah since the days of Sultan Selim 

 the Conqueror, in a.d. 1517. Captain Burton assigned to the Jebel El-Tihaniah 

 (mountains of the Lowlands), the ghats or fringing ranges of the Arabian Peninsula, 

 an altitude of 6000 to 6500 feet, a figure which the hydrographic chart has ex- 

 aggerated to 9000. 



Captain Burton proceeded to outline the movements of the two expeditions 

 which he commanded in 1877 and 1878, both due to the liberality of the Khediv 

 of Egypt, Ismail I. The four months of travel which ended 1877 and began 1878 

 were distributed into three excursions : — 



1. The northern march, which visited the copper works established by the 

 ancient Egyptians ; the ruined capital, " Madiama," which Ptolemy places in N. 

 lat. 28° 15' ; the Fort El-'Akabah, where, also, traces of smelting metal were 

 found ; the sulphur-hill, northernmost of the three discovered, and the great gypsum 

 formations of Midian and Sinai. This section concluded with a peripi-m of the 

 perilous Akabah Gulf and a narrow escape from shipwreck and the sharks. 



2. The central or eastern march to Middle Midian, the course of which was 

 arrested by the villanous Ma'azeh tribe, then tinned southwards, and explored the 

 ruins of Shuwak, the Soaka of Ptolemy (N. lat. 27° 15'). This section concluded 

 with a visit to the turquoise diggings of Ziba; an inspection of the central 

 sulphur-hill, and the ascent of the mighty Sharr mountain which lies behind El- 

 Muwaylah. Geographically speaking, it was the most important, as it brought 

 back details of the Hisma or sandstone plateau bounding the ghats on the East ; 

 and of a huge volcanic tract called El-Harrah. 



3. The southern march, which began and ended at El-Wijh, covered the region 

 worked for gold by the ancients, and collected details, sketches, and plans of the 

 mines open and closed. A third sulphur-hill was explored ; the gold mine El- 

 Marwah of the mediaeval Arab geographers was satisfactorily identified, and a 

 classical shrine or temple was found upon the southern bank of the great Wady 

 Hamz. 



The expedition, which landed in Arabia on December 19th, 1877, left it on 

 April 18th, 1878. By sea and land, it had covered nearly 2500 miles ; of these 

 some 600 were mapped, the crucial stations being determined astronomically. It 

 had measured and planned fourteen settlements, some large enough to be called 

 cities, besides nearly thrice that number of ateliers. At least 200 sketches, oil- 



