506 
CROSS THU MOUNTAINS. 
[chap, XIX. 
satisfaction of our side. I broke all the lances into 
fragments upon a rock,—ordered Zeneb to make a fire 
with the wood of the handles, to boil some coffee; and 
tying the swords into a bundle, we packed the lance- 
heads and knives in a basket, with the understanding 
that they should be delivered to their owners on our 
arrival at the last well, after which point there would be 
water on the route every day. From that place, there 
would be no fear of our camels being stolen, and of 
our being deserted in the desert. 
On arrival at the well a few days later, I delivered 
the weapons to their owners as promised, they having 
followed our party. Souakim is about 275 miles from 
the Nile at Berber. At Kokreb, about half-way, we 
entered the chain of mountains that extends from Suez 
parallel with the Bed Sea to the south * many portions 
of this chain are four or five thousand feet above the 
sea level. The mountains were exceedingly beautiful, 
their precipitous sides of barren rock exhibiting superb 
strata of red and grey granite, with vast masses of 
exquisite red and green porphyry. Many hills were 
of basalt, so biack, that during an entire day's journey 
the face of the country appeared like a vast desert of 
coal, in broken hills and blocks strewed over the surface 
of the ground. Kokreb was a lovely oasis beneath the 
high mountains, with a forest of low mimosas in full 
leaf, and a stream running from the mountains, the 
produce of a recent storm. Throughout this country 
there are no rivers that should be noticed on a map, as 
the torrents are merely the effects of violent storms, 
which, falling upon the mountains several times during 
the rainy season from June to the end of August, tear 
their boisterous way along their stony course and dry 
up in a few hours, becoming exhausted in the sand of 
the deserts. For some days our course lay along a deep 
ravine between stupendous cliffs; this was the bed of 
a torrent, that, after heavy storms, flowed through the 
mountains, inclining to the east; in this were pools 
of most beautifully clear water. In many places the 
