Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/75

Rh appeared, dark and majestic, against the sky. It was a scene not to be forgotten. We had full in view not only some of the finest mountains in this part of the world, but those which had witnessed the power and presence of Jehovah in a special and terrible manner amongst His chosen people. One could not gaze on such a scene without emotion almost too deep for utterance.

The Wâdy es Sheikh, which we were now traversing, is interesting from several circumstances. We find ourselves surrounded by low granite hills, with serried outlines and irregular forms. And we observe that they are penetrated by dykes of dark basaltic (or dioritic) rock, which from their greater hardness form the crests of the ridges, and project from the sides like broken walls. The general direction of these dykes is W.S.W. and E.N.E., but there are some which run transverse to these. These basaltic dykes are seen to cut through others of red porphyry, and which are, therefore, of older date.

Another feature of interest is the extensive grove of tamarisks which is found near the centre of the valley. We had not hitherto seen so large a grove, nor trees of this kind of such size, or so graceful in form. The drooping twigs were covered with flowers at the time of our visit; and from the numerous heaps of ashes lying about it was clear that the wood is used by the Arabs for charcoal. Young plants were, however, springing up in place of the old, and our camels enjoyed the opportunity of browsing on the green leafy sprays and twigs.

Towards the upper part of the Wâdy es Sheikh we met with terraces of marl, fine gravel and laminated sand, rising from 60 to 80 feet above the present bed of the valley. These ten-aces were originally much more extensive and continuous, but have been to a large extent carried away by the torrents which descend from the mountains. At the head of the W. Watiyeh these soft strata occupy the floor of a plain about half a mile across. There can be little doubt, I think, that these deposits, surrounded as they are in nearly every direction by higher ground, were formed over the bed of an ancient lake, or chain of lakes similar to those I have already described in the Wâdy Hamr and Wâdy Gharandel, further to the north-west. They have since been drained, owing to changes in the level of the country and other causes; and are possibly referable to a period when rain was much more abundant than at the present day.