64 



[So. S3, 



Oo the descent of the rock to the right the Arabs show an im- 

 presnon something Kke that of a earners foot, about 7 J inches across 

 the toes, 3| across the heel and 8^ long on the surface of the rock. 

 It is apparentir a natural cavity modified by art, the Arabs asf^ert it 

 is the mark of their Prophet's camel's foot ^hen he vi&ited Jebel 

 Mdsa, the Mountain of Moses, for such they inrariably style thi» 

 peak. It reminded me of the rock impressions of the " Sacred foot ' 

 in India and Ceylon. 



The day was tolerably clear, and the sun shining brightly, but tre 

 were not able to discern Tor, the Gulph of Suez or the Red Sea, 

 South of Bas Mahomed, the most southerly point of the peninsula. 

 The Elamitic Gulph, or sea of Akaba was distinctly visible, as also 

 the mountains beyond. Schubert states the sea ig visible on three 

 ades of the peninsula. Neither the convent, the plain of Er Kahah 

 nor Jebel Serbal are visible. Om Shomer and St« Catherine are 

 hidden by the nearer ridges of Jebel Homr and of St. Catherine which 

 bears S. W. St. Catherine is evidently higher than the sumnjit 

 on which we stoc«d. Riippell makes it barometrically 1.030 French 

 feet higher than Sinai. The approximate height of Mount Sinai 

 by the boiling point of water, I made to be 7,390 feet above the sea 

 which is not very wide of the average of 3 separate barometrical 

 measurements of Russegger, RuppeJl, and Schubert, viz. 7.412 

 feet. 



Lieutenant Wellstcd, however, by trigonometrical observation, 

 from two points within the sea of Akabah, makes it 7,530 and 7,480 

 feet above the sea, and 2,500 above the convent, which by the boil- 

 ing point I found to be about 5,000 feet above the sea, — a near ap- 

 proximation to the truth. The thermometer freely exposed to the 

 eun'« ravf on the summit rose from shade to 99 2^ ; the air calm 

 5 ene. In winter, the monks inform me, the summit is 



r.ow which, in melting, fills the deep well just below 



A pigtol the top of the chapel on the highest or eastern 

 end of the . 'i some fine reverberations among the sur- 

 rounding r ; stillness of the air which prevailed. 



WV, r a two botirs stay on the summit to the cypre«i 



ir- d Elhhz on Mount Horeb, where we made 



a ; . of Mount Sinai which, with a sub?K:qaent 



trip nearly round the ba«c enabled me to give the subjoined diagram. 



