1847,] 



Visit to Mount Sinai. 



67 



starlight struck me as being the head of the valley called Wadi 

 Hebron and forming a water shed between Mount Sinai and the sea 

 of Suez. 



But. I must not omit to mention a singular peak, which we passed 

 at 6 p. M. apparently fully 900 feet above us with the figure of a 

 large white cross on the precipitous side of the bare cliff forming its 

 summit. If the appearance be not the work of man's hands, but the 

 result of some vein in the rock it could not have escaped the atten- 

 tion of the early pilgrims to the sacred mount, and would be regard- 

 ed by them as a rainbow of hope to comfort them on their journey 

 through the wilderness. 



The cold on the top of the rocky barrier was so great in com« 

 parison to the khamsi7i we had been grilling in at Suez that we could 

 not sleep. The stars shone in the deep blue heaven with a brilliancy 

 rarely surpassed even in India. 



Well might the Chaldean shepherds while tending their flocks, 

 during the still watches of the night turn star-gazers and note the 

 revolutions of the heavenly bodies over so clear and beautiful a 

 mirror. 



A.th June.— At half an hour before sun-rise we descended the 

 rocky barrier into the head of another ravine called by the Arabs 

 with us Wadi Feiran. 



„ ^ . Our course now instead of bein^ N. E. turned 



Wadi Feiran. * 



to E. S. E. and that of the little spring in Wadi Feirau 



has a similar direction, nearly opposite to the rivulet of Wadi He- 

 bron. The descent easterly however is of short continuance and 

 we soon lost the course of the rivulet which finds its way in one of 

 the smaller tvadis which open on Wadi Feiran to the S. 



Wadi Feiran offers far less picturesque features to the traveller 

 than Wadi Hebron. The rocks are principally of the hypogene 

 schist, gneiss, mica, felspathic actynolite, chlorite and hornblende 

 schist, (the latter prevailing), the contour of M'hich is always less 

 bold than that of the granite and porphyry with which they are 

 associated. 



The surface of the valley is free from rocks, and better clothed 

 with vegetation — principally tamarisk trees. Hence is a fine view 

 to the N. W. of five of the lofty granite peaks of Jebel Serbal rising 

 high above his neighbours. 



H 



