Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/243



the 10th of November, 1883, the party left Suez for the camp at Ayun Mûsa. I was able to compare chronometers at the Eastern Telegraph ship on the way out of the harbour.

The small oasis called the Ayun Mûsa has been fully described in guide books, and Baedeker gives an enlarged plan of the locality with the heights of the springs in detail.

The place consists of a few springs of limpid but brackish water, small pools with gardens of palms and tamarisks around them, as well as beds of vegetables and culinary herbs.

These gardens are kept by a Frenchman and some Arabs, who have provided summer-houses for the convenience of those who resort thither from Suez to enjoy the fresh desert air. They form the market gardens from which the vegetable supply of Suez is principally drawn. There exists also a solitary pool upon the top of a neighbouring hill of sand, having one single palm beside it.

While camped there I went over my stores and instruments, and took some astronomical observations to see that all were in proper order for the start.

On the 12th November, camp was moved to Wâdy Sudur; the route was over an open plain by the sea-shore with a line of cliffs supporting the Tih plateau, about ten miles to the east. Torrents from these cliffs had covered the ground in many places with rocks and boulders. These torrents are extremely short-lived, coming down in force when any rain falls, and drying up almost as quickly. When it ceases, they spread themselves over the plain in many shallow channels, covering a large area with stones and débris. One had come down Wâdy Sudur about ten days before, and the traces of wet mud, &c., were still visible over the plain. This wady has become famous for the tragedy enacted in August, 1882