14 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
difficulties which travellers have met with has been to find in it a 
plain or valley sufficiently large to contain the tents of the Israelite 
host. It has been called “ the Alps unclothed and next to the 
wild grandeur of its mountains, the most striking peculiarity that 
meets the eye of the traveller who has just left the rich valley 
of the Nile is the absence of vegetation, and the barrenness of 
its rocks. A very remarkable succession of plains extends along 
the whole of the western coast of the peninsula from Suez to the 
southernmost point of Eas Mohammed. The most northern of 
these plains, the ancient wilderness of Etham, or Shur, is about 
seventy miles long, and from twelve to fifteen miles broad, being 
bounded on the east by the range of Jebel er-Eahah, which has 
already been described. This plain may be said to extend as 
far south as Jebel Hummam, a ridge of calcareous limestone, 
which forms a bold promontory, cutting off all farther advance 
along the shore ; about ten miles north of this point, however, 
the sandstone hills between Wady Grhurundel and the spring of 
Abu Suweirah interrupt the progress of the plain for a time. 
The traveller who is journeying southward along the coast is 
forced to make a circuit round the back of Jebel Hummam, but 
south of this mountain he again arrives at a succession of smaller 
plains, three in number, which together occupy a space of about 
thirty miles in length, being separated from one another by low 
spurs of limestone, which run down so close to the sea as barely 
to leave sufficient room for a caravan to pass round them. The 
first of these three plains was that occupied by the Israelites 
during their encampment by the Eed Sea which is mentioned in 
Numbers xxxiii. 10 ; the two latter, perhaps, were both included 
in the Wilderness of Sin. The sandstone hills which enclose the 
lower portion of Wady Feiran form a barrier which separates 
these plains from that of el-Kaa, a plain nearly ninety miles in 
length, running unbroken by any mountain until it reaches the 
southern promontory of Eas Mohammed ; the northern portion 
of it, however, is separated from the sea by the range of Jebel 
Hemam. These shore-plains are by no means destitute of ve- 
getation. That between Suez and Jebel Hummam most tra- 
vellers have described as being especially barren ; but this has 
been because they have taken the upper road; had they jour- 
neyed along the coast, their account of it would have been very 
different. The upper portion of the plain, i.e. the portion 
nearest to the range of Jebel er-Eahah, is certainly sterile 
enough ; but along the coast a line of low hills of sand is found, 
which intercept the drainage to the sea, and have caused the 
formation of a considerable tract of alluvial deposit, affording 
good pasturage for the camels of the Terrabein Arabs, and 
abounding with thickets of tamarisks and other bushes. The three 
smaller plains which lie between Jebel Hummam and Wady 
