Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/94

66 elevation of about 3,600 feet above the sea level, often forming isolated tors, and tabulated headlands. The plain is covered with scrub, and strewn with pretty little round pebbles, formerly imbedded in the sand-stone rock itself. Here we noticed several individuals of a little animal, a batrachian, allied to the salamander (one of the group of so-called "Sand Lizards"), darting about over the hot sands. It is about 5 inches long from head to tip of tail, head flattish, and of a colour exactly resembling that of the sand over which it runs, except in the dusky bands over the lower part of the tail. It is very active, and when pursued makes vigorous efforts to escape amongst the prickly bushes of the desert. It probably feeds on ants and other insects.

We camped for the night on a pebbly plain, preparatory to our descent the next day into the great valley of the Arabah, which was to terminate the first stage of our survey. Our course had been very much that of the arc of a circle, the chord of which woidd lie from W. to E.; that is, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to that of the Gulf of Akabah. Henceforth it was to be northwards, along a tract of country not well known, and offering to us the prospect of much which would be interesting and new to science. On the day following, 29th November, we descended the eastern slopes of the Tîh, by the Haj Road, amongst features and scenery of the grandest description, down to the shore of the Gulf of Akabah. At about noon we came in front of a massive serrated ridge of red granite and porphyry, which rose up, as it were, across our path, and stretched in a north and south direction for several miles. On reaching its base the road turns sharply to the right, and for some distance lies along a valley, bounded on the left by the porphyry, and on the right by contorted beds of limestone. The line of this valley coincides (in fact) with that of a great fault, the direction of which Mr. Laurence determined with the prismatic compass to be North 28° East. Along this line of displacement the limestone strata are brought down against the porphyry, as shown in the annexed section, Fig. 6, p. 68. The effect of this sudden change in the character of the physical features is most marked, and can scarcely fail to attract the notice of the most casual observer.

Descending to the foot of the mountains we crossed the level plain by the margin of the waters of the Tranquil Sea, and passing through the palm groves, which give the name of "Elim" to the spot, we made for our tents, which we found pitched near the fort, beyond those of the engineers.