Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/26

4 comfort and safety of the travellers. The Egyptian Government, through the Foreign Office, offered an escort as far as Akabah, the limit of Egyptian territory; but as we had no reasons for apprehension from the Arabs in the Sinaitic peninsula, we did not think it necessary to avail ourselves of the kindness of Cheriff Pasha, who had offered through Major Kitchener to give us every assistance in his power. The district where an escort of soldiers was likely to be of use lay between Akabah and the Salt Sea, and here the Egyptian escort would have been unable to accompany us.

The party as it now stood consisted of four; but it was obviously desirable that it should include a naturalist, who should make notes and collections of the representative fauna and flora of the district to be traversed; and of a meteorologist, who should also make observations on the temperature, rainfall, and aneroid determinations of the levels of special points along our route. I therefore cast about in my mind for volunteers having the necessary time and qualifications to undertake those departments of research, and was most fortunate in both instances. Mr. Henry Chichester Hart, who joined us in the former capacity, had been personally known to me for several years as an ardent investigator of the flora of Ireland, having made several reports on the botany of special districts of that country, under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. He had also acted as Naturalist in the expedition of Sir George (then Captain) Nares, R.N., to the Arctic regions, which had penetrated as far north as 83° 14′ lat. To these antecedents Mr. Hart added an uncommon power of enduring bodily fatigue; and he proved a most agreeable addition to our party, owing to his imperturbable good humour, and the extent of his knowledge on natural history subjects. Mr. Reginald Laurence, Associate of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, who accepted my invitation to act as Honorary Meteorologist to the Expedition, had also been my personal friend for several years, and from my knowledge of his antecedents and ability, I felt sure he would prove the right man to complete our quorum; and in this I was not disappointed. Never, I feel sure, were six persons more happily associated in an undertaking of this kind. Throughout our whole tour the utmost good feeling prevailed amongst the members; each took an interest, not only in his own department, but in those of the others, and tried to assist in them as opportunity offered. My son, having had considerable practice in photography, undertook to bring home photographs of the district through which we were to pass, and through part of which no