I Had Observed Similar Strata In
Wady Genne, But Running Horizontally Along The Whole Chain Of Mountains,
And Dividing It, As It Were, Into Two Equal Parts.
The porphyry I have
met with in Sinai is usually a red indurated argillaceous substance; in
some specimens it had the appearance of red feldspath.
In the argil are
imbedded small crystals of hornblende, or of mica, and thin pieces of
quartz at most two lines square. I never saw any large fragments of
quartz in it. Its universal colour is red. The lower mountains of Sinai
are much more regularly shaped than the upper ones: they are less
rugged, have no insulated peaks, and their summits fall off in smooth
curves.
The Wady Sal is extremely barren: we found no pasture for our camels, as
no rain had fallen during the two last years, in the whole of this
eastern part of the peninsula. A few acacia trees grew in different
places; we rested at noon under one of them while a cup of coffee was
prepared, and then pursued the Wady downwards until, at the end of seven
hours, we issued from it into a small plain, which we soon crossed, and
at seven hours and a half entered another valley, similar to the former,
where I again saw some granite, of the gray, small-grained species[.]
Our descent was here very rapid, and at the end of nine hours and a half
we reached a lower level, in a broad valley running southwards.
HAYDAR
[p.494] From hence the summit of Mount St. Catherine, behind the
convent, bore S.W. by W. Calcareous and sand rocks begin here, and the
bottom of the valley is deep sand. We rode in it in the direction N.E.
by N. and after a march of eleven hours alighted in a plain, at a spot
which afforded some shrubs for our camels to feed upon. The elder of my
two guides, by name Szaleh, soon proved himself to be ignorant of the
road. He might have passed this way in his youth, and have had a
recollection of the general direction of the valleys; but when we
arrived in the plain, he proceeded in various directions, in search of a
road from the east. We had now, about six or eight miles to our left, a
long and straight chain of mountains, the continuation, I believe, of
that of Tyh or Dhelel, mentioned above, and running almost parallel with
our route. The northern side of these mountains is inhabited by the
tribe of Tyaha. Here passes the road which leads straight from the
convent to Akaba, while the one we took descended to the sea, and had
been chosen by my guides for greater security. The upper road passes by
the watering places Zelka, El Ain (the Well), a place much frequented by
Bedouins, and where many date-trees grow, and lastly by El Hossey. It is
the common route from the convent to Khalyl and Jerusalem.
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