12 
mostly cut with flakes of flint. As regarded other remains of the Children of 
Israel, he thought there must be some. He did not think they could 
possibly have remained so long in the country without leaving some traces, 
at least in their tombs. But who was to say what was, and what was not, 
an Israelitish tomb ? There were some exceedingly interesting primitive 
buildings, and these were, he believed, the remains of the dwellings of the 
Amalekites, certainly as old as the time of Israel ; and very probably the 
tombs of the Israelites would be similar to those of the Amalekites. It was 
difficult in that country to dig a grave, and therefore the inhabitants had 
been in the habit of making a ring of stones, placing the dead within the ring, 
putting earth over the bodies, and placing heavier stones on the top. The 
Children of Israel, when encamped before Mount Sinai, would have their 
burying-place at some little distance ; and just over the pass of Xukb Howa 
there was a large ring of stones which went by the name of “ The Convent 
of Moses.” This ring was about 112 yards in diameter, and he could not help 
thinking that it was a burying-place of the Children of Israel. There was, 
however, nothing whatever to prove it, although he thought it a very pro- 
bable place for the burying of the dead, — just the position the Israelites 
would have chosen. 
Other questions having been asked, — 
Mr. Holland said : — There had been an Egyptian garrison at the turquoise 
and copper mines at Wady Mugharah and Serabit El Kadim. He was, 
however, of opinion that the garrison would not have been large enough 
to keep back the Israelites. He thought that the strong point against the 
northern route was the encampment by the sea. He hardly thought that 
a small number of Egyptian soldiers stationed, as a guard over the miners, 
at the turquoise mines would have dared to have opposed the host of Israel. 
Last spring he had taken pains to ascertain the connection between the 
northern and southern routes, and he found that there were a large number 
of valleys through which communication could take place. There was a 
plain to the south of Jebel Musa, but it was at a considerable distance from 
the mountain, and he did not think that this plain at all came up to the 
probable requirements for the camping-place of the Israelites. The only other 
plain that at all answered to these requirements was that of “ Senned ; ” but 
he did not think, taking all things into consideration, that it was as suitable 
for the encampment as the one before Jebel Musa. Serbal seemed to him 
entirely out of the question. The supposed plain before Serbal did not exist 
at all. The mountain was a very imposing one, far more so than the others, 
although not nearly as high. He had been all over the peninsula, and had 
walked some 5,000 miles in different directions, and certainly there was no 
plain that at all came up to the requirements in the same way as Jebel 
Musa. 
Mr. D. Howard said, that a point in the lecture to be specially observed 
was the existence of a state of much greater fertility in the Sinaitic Peninsula 
than was usually supposed. It was a matter for careful examination as to 
