xxvi INTEODUCTION. 
country traversed had much the same character as the region between Assuan and 
Allaki. 
Schweinfurth l , in his enterprising voyage made thirty-four years ago along the 
coast of the Red Sea from Kosseir to Suakin and back in a native boat, visited the Elba 
group of mountains in the month of April and again in July. On the latter occasion 
he attempted to reach the summit of Jebel Soturba, but was turned back by the 
Bisharin. The way to the mountains from the sea lay over undulating ground, 
alternately between sandy watercourses full of shrubs and ridges of basalt, porphyry, 
and granite. In places he had to tear his way through thorny bushes and sharp- 
edged boulders. Further on, when he had reached a low chain of hills (about 30 
metres high), the sandy plain began to rise considerably, and after marching for an 
hour and a half he encamped on soft sand and grass. Here heavy dew fell at night. 
Beyond, he crossed a sandy plain bordered by hills and rich vegetation, but the plants 
were now half dried up, and, at the beginning of Castle Hill, heights of red granite about 
76 metres in altitude were covered to their summits with dried shrubs, and a valley 
further on was rich in "SSammors trees." This is only one of a group of mountains 
each of which is more or less separated from those around it. The double-peaked 
Jebel Soturba is the mountain that gives its name to the group among the Bisharin. 
The neighbouring Jebel Alafa is cut into by three great denies, in which water 
collects in a number of natural basins among the granite rocks. Schweinfurth, 
who ascended one of the lesser peaks, states that the flora of this mountain group 
has exactly the same characters as the flora of Abyssinia, and that the plants on 
the summit of the peak he climbed were quite distinct from those below. From 
the highest peak he saw the plain beneath studded with hundreds of thousands of 
little spots, all acacia-trees. The flora was wonderfully rich considering the rarity 
of rain. 
The late Mr. Theodore Bent 2 also visited the Elba mountains (Introd. Pis. III. & IV.) 
from the sea, and he describes Jebel Shellal (close on 1220 metres in height) as 
the most fertile of the group ; and in the month of February, immediately after a 
copious rainfall, he found its slopes beautifully covered with verdure, and a stream 
issuing from a deep ravine (Introd. PI. IV.) that ran right into the heart of the 
mountain, promising an ample supply to the nomads for some months. He concluded, 
however, that the country around Elba, except after heavy rain, is little better than 
a desert. 
To the north of the First Cataract the granitic area on the east bank of the Nile 
becomes narrowed, but the mountainous character is retained throughout the area to 
which the term Arabian desert is restricted. This entire region, which rises in a 
gentle slope from the river to the main range, is cut up on the west of the crystalline 
1 Zeitsehr. Ges. Erdk., Berlin, 1865, p. 131 et seq. 
3 Geogr. Journal, Oct. 1896. 
