Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/32

10 clothed with a slight forest vegetation. The sunshine effects were sometimes very beautiful, the higher elevations being so brightly white as to resemble the snow-clad summits of the Alps. Towards evening the sky presented a grand spectacle. Overhead the stars shone forth from the dark blue vault of heaven; from time to time the clouds which hung over Crete were illumined by brilliant sheets of lightning often bursting forth from behind the mountains like the flames of a volcano in active eruption; while brilliant meteors occasionally streamed across the heavens. This scene lasted several hours. The beauties of the sky were so enticing, and the air so balmy, that it was with regret we turned into our berths late at night.