53 



Visit to Mount Sinai. 



[No, 33, 



sulphuret of iron, said to come from Mount Sinai, the crystals of 



\vli:ch have a curious resemblance to Cufic characters. 



^ Laborde" tells us that in an extensive bed of free- 



Copper. 



stone commencing in the plain of Et Tih and reach- 

 ing as far as Nasb and Serabut al Kadim and S. towards Wadi Ma- 

 gara, traces of copper exist, and that there are the remains of ancient 

 minesin Wadi Magara. Specimens of the turquoise (malachite ?) 

 v^eve brought him from the rubbish of Serabut al Kadim by his Arab 

 Kussain. 



If these ^ere really in situ the probability is they were malachites 



as the true turquoise or calaite rarely if ever occurs in sandstone. 



Its geological situs in Persia is trap rock and its alluvium, 



, ^. Professor Robinson states^ that he saw no traces of 



Antimony. 



mines around Serabut al Kadim, as mentioned by 

 Laborde ; but his Arabs informed him that tovrards the west in Wadi 

 Suhan. a branch of Wadi en Nasb was found, the stone from which 

 el huhal is made and carried to Muskat. He supposed it to be an- 

 timony though he acknowledges he saw none of it. 



According to Burckhardt*^ a few hours to the N. E. 



Cmnaoar. 



of Wadi Osh is the mountain of El Shugger, v/hers 

 native cinnabar is collected by the Arabs under the name of rosoJcht 

 ^^ss^,^J. It occurs, he describes, in small pieces about the size of 

 a pigeon's egg, and very seldom crystallized ; but there are some- 

 times nodules on the surface. It stains the fingers of a dark colour, 

 and its fracture is in fibres. He did not hear that the Arabs traded 

 in it. In Wadi Osh the rocks are of gneiss mixed with granite, but 

 the exact matrix or geological situs of cinnabar, Burckhardt does 

 not specify. 



Beds of a yellowish clay occur in Wadi Shaikh 

 which Burckhardt ascribes to the decay of the felspar 

 in the granite. It is sold by the Arabs at Cairo, is used as a fuller's 

 earth, and by the poorer classes instead of soap. It is called by 

 thsm " tafai:' 



Rock salt is procurable very generally in the gypsi- 

 Common Salt. ■ ^ - 



ferous beds as mentioned above. I am not avrare 



that the Arabs use the gypsum for any purpose. Rock crystal 



occurs in the granite rocks of Mount Sinai. 



e Laborde's Sinai and Petra, English Ed. pp. 81 and 84. 

 fc Researches, p. 118. c Travels in Syria, &c., p.4S7. 



