Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/63

Rh can be applied to any of the lakes which lie along the line of the Isthmus. May we not rather suppose that at this period—upwards of three thousand years ago—the Red Sea waters did actually occupy the line of the present canal, at least, as far as the Great Bitter Lake, to a depth which would render them impassable to a host of emigrants?

I have already mentioned that the waters of the Red, and (I may add) the Mediterranean, Seas extended over the lands of Egypt and along the shore of the Gulf of Suez to a height of over 200 feet above the present level of these waters, at a time when the existing species of shells were already living. The process of elevation of this sea-bed over so large a tract was probably exceedingly gradual, and at the date of the Exodus the elevation may not have taken place up to the present extent. A strip of Red Sea water—not very deep—may at this time have stretched from the Gulf of Suez as far north as the Great Bitter Lake, forming to the host of Israel an effective barrier to their progress into the desert. The passage may have taken place to the north of the present head of the Gulf; if this be so, it fits in with the Bible history that the Wâdy Amârah, lying between W. Sudur and Gharandel, would be the Marah of the Bible, the water of which, rising out of the gypseous deposits of that district, would naturally be bitter. This spot was three days' journey south from the supposed place of the passage of the Red Sea; and the next stage for a lengthened halt would be the Wâdy Gharandel, called in the sacred text "Elim," or the place of trees.

Evidences of the existence of ancient lakes throughout the district we were now traversing are not infrequent. The form of the ground sometimes of itself suggests this view, and it is confirmed by the nature of the deposits themselves. Between Wâdies Amârah and Wardan, on the north, and Wâdy Hamr on the south, the hills of limestone assume the form of basins, sometimes connected by narrow necks with each other, or with outlets towards the sea. The deposits enclosed, and occupying the beds of these basins, consist of stratified gravel, sand, and marl, with gypsum and selenite. They are often of considerable thickness, and assume the form of minor terraces inside those of the more ancient limestone. Thus in the Wâdy Useit such deposits are to be seen forming extensive banks, and of a thickness approaching 200 feet (Fig. 2). A second basin, probably connected with the former, appears to have extended from the