Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/110

82 rivers throughout; and the floods which from time to time descend from the glens, which open out on either hand, are speedily absorbed, or evaporated, on entering the plain. It is hence difficult to conceive how this great valley, which is sometimes seven or eight miles in width, especially near its centre, could have been excavated and levelled down, unless the action of the rivers and streams of the bordering hills had originally been supplemented by the levelling action of the sea waves on the south, and of the inland waters of a great lake on the north, of the watershed. As I have already shown, there is direct evidence that the waters of the Gulf of Akabah originally extended to a level at least 200 feet higher than at present; and I shall presently give proof that those of the Salt Sea were at a level at least as high as those of the Mediterranean, or 1,300 feet above the present surface of the Salt Sea. If this be so, it is highly probable that at a still earlier period, when the whole region was being elevated out of the ocean, the waters of the two seas met from either side of the present saddle, from 45 to 50 miles north of the Gulf of Akabah.

Shortly before noon on the 5th December we reached the wells known as Ain el Ghudyan (Fig 9), which have been identified, with very questionable accuracy, with the position of Kadesh Barnea. The wells are situated on some flat and marshy ground; one of large size, at which the camels had a good drink, the other smaller and surrounded by stone pavements. We were badly off for a supply of water for future use, but there was nothing with which to draw, though the well was not more than 8 or 10 feet deep. At length, after much disputation, and the promise of bakhsheesh, a tall