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
Red 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 black, 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.
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