358 PASSAGE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 
the desert, we get rid of the difficuky of their having to march 
sixty miles in only three stages, which is the distance from the 
Nile to the Red Sea, and which seems almost impossible, incum- 
bered as they were, with children, cattle, baggage, and kneading 
troughs, even supposing that their three marches were in a direct 
line east, which appears to have been by no means the case; for 
they were directed, after the second day's march, when they quitted 
Etham on the edge of the wilderness, " to turn," and encamp before 
Fihaheroth, between Migdol and the sea. 
Confiding in the promises of Moses, confirmed as they were by 
the miracles which he had wrought, it is probable that the Israelites 
had prepared for their departure, and were all assembled at some 
one place, waiting impatiently for the result of his last interview 
with Pharaoh. The spot chosen must have been where they could 
either move towards Canaan, or the Red Sea ; and it must have 
been at such a distance only from the Desert, that they could, 
although incumbered, reach the confines of it in two inarches, and 
the Red Sea in three. 
If the Red Sea terminated then, as it does now, at Suez, it appears 
to me impossible to fix on any spot that unites these requisite 
points ; but if it extended then over the marshes, surveyed and 
laid down by Monsieur Ayme, the difficulty would be removed, 
and the vicinity of the modern Balbeis, on the banks of Trajan's 
canal, would accord with the description of the sacred historian, 
for it is in the direct road from Heliopolis to Canaan, and not 
above thirty-five miles from the sea. 
As the great weight of my argument depends on the fact, that, 
from the present appearance of the country, there is every reason 
