Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/137

Rh few seconds Gordon had set up his camera, and the form of the Sheikh and his surroundings were portrayed on the photographic plate ere he commenced to move away.

The scenery of the Wâdy el Weibeh was indeed enough to impress a less observant man than Sheikh Ali. After passing through the Gap of the Wâdy Suweireh (or Valley of the Necklace), so called from the string of palm trees, we found ourselves on the edge of a wide plain, broken by several small ridges and furrows, beyond which rose a grand escarpment of yellow limestone, stretching from the great shoulder it presents to the

valley of the Arabah on the west, to the culminating scarp of Jebel Salamah on the east, a distance of some live or six miles. Parallel to and below the limestone escarpment, were several others of the sandstone formation, dipping below the former, and breaking off in steep, sometimes precipitous, cliffs, highly coloured with tints of yellow, brown, red, or purple. The valley itself was by no means destitute of verdure. Numerous small palms, shrubs, and plants decorated its surface, and set off the coloration of the sandstone cliffs to advantage. On our side the valley was limited by a dark ridge of granite, porphyry, and greenstone; and far away in the distance the horizon was bounded by the limestone tableland of Moab, which looked (from our position) as if decked with a forest