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ARTHUR W. SDTTON^ J. P., F.L.S., ON 



the mountains across the G-ulf of Suez took on a lovely tint, 

 indistinct pale pink, while the sky above the mountains was of 

 a slaty blue ; and then came an exquisite deep broad band 

 of rich salmon pink, while above that yellowish green fading 

 into blue. Our route lay along the desert by the sea for several 

 hours, passing two or three points where the mountains run 

 into the sea at high tide. The camels are very surefooted ; they 

 never stumble on level ground as the Syrian horses constantly 

 do, but on muddy ground or slippery rocks they slide about 

 terribly. We had some experience of this. After passing 

 the last promontory, the desert plain of Er-Markha opened out 

 before us, taking two and a-quarter hours to cross. Murray's 

 description of this plain is well worth quoting, as to this 

 writer it appeared a veritable Inferno of scorching heat — 



" For about two hours the road traverses this plain in a south- 

 easterly direction, and a weary trudge it is. The sun is scorchingly 

 hot, and blazes down upon the traveller from a sky whose blue 

 expanse is unchequered by a single cloud. On the right the waters 

 of the gulf, of an even deeper azure, seem to shimmer in a mirror-like 

 motionless expanse, that is hardly broken by a ripple even where 

 they reach the shore. The soil around is dry, baked and glowing. 

 Fortunate is he who does not have to encounter a Khamseen to add 

 to the exhausting heat, but meets rather with the fresh sea-breeze, 

 which generally rises in the afternoon, and changes the character of 

 the scene." 



This plain of Er-Markha must undoubtedly be identified as the 

 Wilderness of Sin " where the Israelities murmured for food, 

 and quails and manna were first given. Although we covered 

 the distance from Suez to this place in five days, it was not 

 until the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt 

 that the Israelites reached this spot ; and more than ever before 

 we felt able to appreciate the privations which they had to endure. 



Here it was that we saw the first signs of population, even 

 though of a wandering character, there being a Bedouin 

 encampment in the distance and several flocks of "oats 

 wandering in search of scanty herbage, tended by Bedouin girls. 

 The tiocks are always tended by girls and not by men or boys ; 

 and so it was when Moses fled from Egypt and came to Jethro, 

 whose seven daughters he found watering their father's flock 

 near Horeb, i.e., Mount Horeb in Wadi Feiran. 



Before us to the east a wadi opened, and the mountains, 

 to the east, south-east and south, were marvellously beautiful, 

 and the colours extraordinary. On the left, yellow limestone 

 brilliant in the sunshine, and then a Uack mountain (Jebel 



