Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/138

104 vegetation; but, as we are informed by the late Mr. W. Amherst Hayne, no trees, not even shrubs or bushes, exist over the whole of the great plateau of Moab, except at Jebel Attarus. Perhaps, however, this observation does not apply to the sides of the plateau, which were within view from our camp.

We learn that the Bedawins from Petra are closing around us, and fires are visible in various directions. We think it as well to be on the move, and to get down amongst the friendly Ghawarnehs, by the shore of the Salt Sea. One sheikh has done us the honour to follow us from the Wâdy Mûsa, and demands "bakhsheesh" for the loss of his valuable time. He has planted his spear in the camp, and had supper; but on the question of money he finds Bernhard Heilpern "a man of iron." "Why have you followed us?" he asks. "Have you brought us letters from our friends, or despatches from Akabah or Petra?" The sheikh has to admit that he has done nothing to earn the money; and, deeply offended, he takes his spear, mounts his camel, and rides off, henceforth our enemy. As we were retiring for the night, flashes of lightning were seen towards the south-west over the Tîh country. Presently the rumbling of thunder grew more and more distinct, and a little later the whole air was resonant with successive peals. One discharge burst forth just over our camp, and the reverberations from the adjoining mountains were so mixed with the direct discharges that the effect was that of a continuous cannonade. The whole storm passed over in about half-an-hour, and only a few drops of rain fell in our camp, but amongst the mountains to the right the rain had come down in torrents, as was shown by the numerous watercourses we had to cross the following day.

Disintegration of the rocks of the Wâdy el Arahah.—No one who has not seen it can fully realise the extraordinary way in which the rocks of this tract are breaking down and crumbling into dust. In Europe and the British Isles frost and ice are powerful disintegrators, and Col. Sir C. W. Wilson has observed the effects of frost in the higher elevations of the Sinaitic peninsula in dislodging large masses of granite; but here there is neither frost nor ice. Still, not less rapidly, but, as I should judge from appearances, even more rapidly, are the agents of disintegration at work. On a large scale, it is true, the mountains and cliffs are solid: but their outer surfaces are generally completely rotten. Whether it be