Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/85

Rh into operation, and soon exhausted the stock of plates remaining for the day’s use. Every few yards brought us in front of still loftier cliffs of granite, occasionally capped by pyramids and tors of sandstone, until at about half-a-mile from our entrance to this grand cañon, and after winding from side to side, we found ourselves confronted by inaccessible cliffs, estimated by Kitchener and myself at 1,000 feet to 1,200 feet in altitude above the bed of the brook. A little further on, cliffs of sandstone were seen capping the granite on the left; and at length, after numerous windings, a lengthened vista opens out along a straight reach of about three miles, nearly flat along the bottom, and bounded by steep slopes of granite seamed by dykes and sheets of greenstone. At the end of this glen we found our tents pitched on a terrace of gravel, slightly raised above the bed of the now dry stream course. Little groves of palms, tamarisks, and tall reeds were refreshing to the eyes, and afforded choice provender for our camels; and, behind our tents, at the base of the cliffs, our Arabs rested in groups around their fires, chatting over the events of the day, and preparing the evening meal.

There were not wanting proofs that this remarkable ravine, now almost waterless, is sometimes the channel of a mighty river, which sweeps down towards the sea in an impetuous flood, carrying everything within its reach before it. Immense masses of shingle were piled up within the entrant angles and protected places of the valley where eddies would be formed; while large boulders and masses of driftwood were sometimes to be seen lying stranded in similar positions. One can well imagine that after one of the great thunderstorms which burst on the mountainous parts of the peninsula, and suddenly convert dry valleys into impetuous torrents, this gorge of the El Ain must present a spectacle at once impressive and terrible; for it then receives the combined floods of the Wâdies Zelegah, El Biyar, and numerous smaller tributaries. In such a case, woe to the unhappy traveller who finds himself within the walls of the grand cañon; he himself may possibly escape by scaling the cliffs, but his camels and baggage would be swept away beyond the hope of rescue. On this account the Arabs seldom enter this part of the valley. To them it remains mysterious and almost unknown; and we may feel assured that, to the host of Israel, it would have proved a dangerous and almost