iS6- TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



of a hammer ; but the works of old times were more ap- 

 parent in it, than in any mountain we had feen. Duels, or 

 channels, for carrying water tranfverfely, were obferved evi- 

 dently to terminate in this quarry ofjafper::a proof that 

 water was one of the means ufed in cutting thefe hard i 

 ftones. 



About ten- o'clock, defcending very rapidly, with' green, 

 marble and jafper on each fide of. us, but no other greeir: 

 thing whatever, we had the.firft profpect . of the Red Sea,., 

 and, at a quarter paft eleven, we arrived at GofTeir. It has- 

 been a wonder with all. travellers, and with myfeif among 

 the reft, where the ancients procured that prodigious quan- 

 tity of fine marble, with which all their buildings abound.. 

 That wonder, however, among many others, now ceafes, 

 after having pafTed, in four days, more granite, porphyry,, 

 marble, and jafper, than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth,.. 

 Syracufe, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen fuch ci- 

 ties. It feemed to be very vifible, that thofe openings in the j 

 hills, which I call Defiles, were not natural, but artificial ; and.- 

 that whole mountains had been cut out at thefe places, to,> 

 preferve a Hope towards the Nile as gentle as poflible: this,. 

 I fuppofe, might be a defcent of about one foot in fifty at-, 

 rnolt; fo that, from the mountains to the Nile, thofe heavy. - 

 carriages muil have moved with as little draught as pof- 

 lible, and, at the fame time, been fufhcientiy impeded by. 

 friction, fo as not to run amain, or acquire an increafed ve- 

 locity, againft which, alfo, there muft have been other pro- 

 vifions contrived,. As I made another excurfion to thefe : 

 marble mountains from CofFeir, I will, once for all, here fet, 

 down what I. obferved concerning their natural appcaiv 

 ance, 



The.- 



