From Blackwood's Magazine.
EXPLORATIONS.

some time and labour. But the greater part of the busy world cannot bestow the Of all the kinds of offerings which are necessary time and labour, and that is tendered to the supreme public, none is what was meant when it was said above so safe from depreciation and neglect as that the very truthfulness and minuteness that which gives accounts of unknown or with which modern research is recorded imperfectly-known regions of the earth. raises up a barrier between writer and A strong natural curiosity prompts us to reader which did not exist in times when delight in the information therein given; writers could do things in their own way, in acquiring the information we of neces- and compose with an eye to their readers' sity become acquainted with the personal convenience. This being so, it seems to adventures of the traveller; we learn at us that an acceptable service may be done what cost and risk our gratification has by giving a short account of some results been procured for us; and we feel a per- of explorations, of the means used, and sonal regard for the author. As a bearer of the adventures encountered, while of new and interesting knowledge, and as passing over the more tedious details. a hero greater or less, he establishes a The idea of so doing occurred to us while double claim on our goodwill; and if his lately most agreeably occupied in followwork has any merit at all, he may calcu-ing the footsteps of different searchers late on a gracious recognition. The great who have been laboriously examining progress of science, however, and the lands and sites which in times past were precise accurate methods of conducting powerful kingdoms and cities, which have explorations in our day, have-paradoxi- always continued famous, though their cal as the assertion may seem - raised up greatness has long since passed away, a barrier between travellers and the great and the remains of which, associated as bulk of the people. If the information they are with our earliest lessons and which we receive now be far more reliable emotions, must interest us in a high deand satisfying than that which used to gree. reach our fathers in times past, it is more As surpassing all other regions in our slowly procured, and is communicated regard, precedence is due to the Holy with more caution, and in greater detail. Land and countries adjoining, where the Startling discoveries and connections can- greatest energy has been exercised with not be allowed to rest upon the opinion a view to presenting an accurate and of the traveller alone, but must be con- complete description of their appearance firmed or supported by a collection of and topography, to identifying the scenes careful evidence, that will bear to be sift- of events recorded in the sacred writings, ed by keen philosophical brains. Imag- and to ascertaining what was the aspect ination has to be sternly and habitually of the land and the form of its edifices subordinated to judgment; there must be - more particularly of the famous Temno jumping at conclusions, no announce- ple—in the times to which those writings ment of surmises as if they were estab- refer. The Palestine Exploration has lished facts, however astonishing and in- been effected as far as it has been carteresting such facts might be if they could ried out, and is still being prosecuted, be proved; the steps of the most allur-principally by officers and non-commising research must be patiently registered, sioned officers of the Royal Engineers, and proof must be advanced upon proof, but in part by enterprising civilians who with the order and severity of a mathe-have joined in the examination. The matical demonstration. It follows, therefore, that the narrations reflect the minds and feelings of the writers somewhat less than they did of old, and that the highly valuable facts which they report are involved in a covering of details, and are not to be reached but at an expense of

first object of the Royal Engineer expeditions (of which there have been several, the first having gone out in 1864) was to obtain an accurate survey of the country, with views of the most important places, and a full report of proceedings and observations: the second was

to explore beneath the present surface of events of oldest date. Accordingly it is the ground about Jerusalem and other to the examination of the Sinaitic pennoted places, and to realize, if possible, insula - which was made in 1868, after their ancient figures and construction the survey of Jerusalem had been accomfrom an examination of their foundations plished — that we first draw attention. and buried remains. The superficial sur- This peninsula, as most of our readers veys were made by Captains Wilson and are aware, is included between the gulfs Palmer, and by Lieutenant Anderson, of Suez and Akaba, and lies altogether Royal Engineers; the excavations were north of the Red Sea of modern geograthe work of Captain Warren, Royal En-phers. But perhaps it may not be so gineers. The Holy City was measured widely known that, up to the year 1868, and mapped with all the accuracy which this peninsula - which is close to the is observed in the operations of the isthmus - had never been thoroughly Ordnance Survey at home, and special explored, and that no one traveller who surveys were made of two hills in the Si-penetrated its defiles had traversed more naitic peninsula; but the surveys of oth-than two of the routes of the desert. er parts of Palestine and of a part of This is remarkable in an age when the Arabia were, to use a military phrase, Egyptian deserts have been intersected reconnaissances; that is to say, such by railways, and communication with plans or maps as engineers and staff- India has been long established by way .officers on active service are able to make of Suez. But in truth this interesting rerapidly of parts of the theatre of war- gion never could or would have been satprominent points of the country are fixed isfactorily inspected so long as the task as accurately as can be done by pocket- of searching it should have been left to instruments, minor points are laid down enterprising individuals travelling alone according to judgment, the judgment be- or in small bands. The country is mouning assisted occasionally by angles and tainous, wild, and rugged; its desolation compass-bearings; and the details are is such that merely to make good a passketched in by aid of the eye alone. An sage to and from its recesses is a tax accomplished surveyor will in a very which the energies of few adventurers short time make a general map of aston- would bear: but making the passage is a ishing accuracy by this last method. All feat very far short of taking in the feamaps, views, and measurements of Pales-tures of the whole ground, and compartine or its parts were of course sent home ing routes, and heights, and pools and with the reports, so that the societies and torrents, and forms of hills, so as to depersons connected with, and interested termine the points which most nearly anin, the explorations, could, sitting at their swer to those mentioned in the Exodus. desks in England, follow every move of The Rev. F. W. Holland, whose account the examiners, and draw their inferences we are following, says: "Few countries and conclusions almost as readily as if present to the view so wild an aspect. they had been on the spot. The means The mountains appear heaped together adopted for exploring beneath the sur- in utter confusion, and they are interface we will state when we come to speak sected in every direction by deep valleys, of Captain Warren's subterranean work, which, in the lapse of ages, have been and we will find an opportunity for say-cut out by the winter torrents." Clearly, ing something of the personal adven- then, the daring wanderer who could say tures of the members of the expedi- that he had come and seen, could not reations; but in the first place it will per-sonably claim to have overcome the difhaps be more convenient to give some ficulties of this intricate topography. account of what was accomplished and ascertained. In doing this we will not follow the order in which the researches were made, but begin with that investigation the subject of which is related to

Many a one flattered himself that he had solved perplexing problems, and come back with some, at least, of the desired information: but he was sure to find that another was equally positive, and not less

plausible, in a different view.

There grapher, and four other non-commissioned officers of the corps, selected from the companies that are attached to the Ordnance Survey. The party started with a caravan of forty-two camels, attended by forty Arab drivers. Thus there was the greatest probability that the exploration would this time be thorough and accurate, and the evidence incontrovertible.

were no ready means of bringing the conflicting opinions to a common test; and so, while each defended his own theories, the civilized world remained as much as ever in doubt as to the exact track of those memorable wanderings with which it was spiritually so familiar, the obsolete names of whose stations were household words in its vocabulary, and whose trials and dangers are a shadow of the lives of just men of all times, seeking with patience and fortitude the way to their promised rest.

Before stating the strong testimony furnished by this expedition, and the important conclusions to which it leads, it may be well to premise that the names Thus a well organized and appointed of places given in the Exodus have all expedition was indispensable to the suc- perished, or if any of them endure it is in cessful exploration of the peninsula; and altered forms, so that they of themselves in order that the exploration, when made, contribute very little to identification. should even partially dissipate the mists Hence the field for speculation as to the of ages, good maps and views must form route of the Israelites after they left part of the achievement. Besides these Egypt has been very wide; and some things the exigencies of the service de- writers, who have given attention to the manded that the Arabic names should be subject, have doubted whether the wilthoroughly understood and considered derness of the wanderings was in the and compared on the ground, so as to so-called Sinaitic peninsula at all. But guard against not only accidental and these writers who have so doubted have innocent errors of nomenclature, but also been few; tradition is altogether in faagainst the wilful deceits which the sus-vour of the peninsula; and the Rev. Mr. picious nature of the Arabs leads them to practise on strangers who evince curiosity about the land. And it was desirable, although not imperative, that the natural history of the peninsula should receive attention. It will be seen that provision was made in the expedition of 1868 for the fulfilment of all these conditions.

Holland, before giving the evidence obtained in the territory itself, makes it sufficiently clear that the claims of the peninsula are, from the witness of Scripture, so strong as to entirely warrant the search in that direction for further knowledge. He shows that, from the number of the journeys (three) from the land of The Rev. F. W. Holland, whom Goshen to the sea-shore, the sea which we quoted above, and who had made was reached could be no other than that three previous visits to the neighbour- which is now called the Gulf of Suez; hood of Sinai, made one of the adven- also, that after the passage of the sea, turers, to act, as he modestly puts it, in the course was at first southward along the capacity of guide; but it is clear that its eastern shore: so that, concurrently his experience, zeal, and acumen were of with the Biblical account, the scenes of the greatest assistance in regard to the the earlier wanderings and of the delivmain objects of the expedition. Mr. E. ery of the law could have been nowhere H. Palmer, Fellow of St. John's College, else than on the peninsula. It must be Cambridge, whose intimate knowledge of remembered, too, that the Egyptians, Arabic made his services invaluable, was even of that remote time, were amazingly another of the band. Mr. Wyatt went to advanced in intelligence and ability: it collect specimens of natural history. is known for the hieroglyphic records These with Captains Wilson and Palmer, may be read on the rocks and the reRoyal Engineers, before mentioned, were mains of the mines seen to this day— the leaders. Then there was a Serjeant- that somewhere near the centre and to major, R. E., who was an expert photo- the eastward of the peninsula, they had

mines of metal and precious stones: it is being tested in view of the maps and known, also, that there was at the time models, the pretensions of Jebel Serbal, of the exodus an Egyptian settlement in- the mountain near the shore of the gulf, land to the eastward of the gulf. There are seen to dwarf immediately. It has would, of course, be communication be- properties which no doubt seemed contween this settlement and Egypt round vincing to those who did not see its rival, the head of the gulf; so that if Moses or who, visiting the other hill, could not desired, as no doubt he did, to avoid col- compare save mentally the merits of the lision with the Egyptians, his only course two: "In massive ruggedness, and in was to march southwards by the sea, as boldness of feature and outline, Jebel we are told that he did. It being thus Serbal unquestionably presents an aspect taken as proved by the explorers that unequalled by any other mountain in Mount Sinai lay within the peninsula, the peninsula. It has a greater comtheir first care was to identify the moun- mand than almost any other mountain tain. There is no hill bearing that name over the surrounding country, and looks now; and as to traditions, though there more imposing from the valleys bewere plenty of them, they did not agree, neath." But it seems to have been the and it was impossible to distinguish those grandeur of its appearance alone which which might have been merely monkish led to its being thought to be Sinai. It from those which might have come down cannot be comprehensively seen from from older days. Hence there was none any point in the valleys near its base; but topographical evidence the form, and it is necessary to ascend one of the the surroundings, and the approaches neighbouring hills to view the whole by which the identification could be ar- range of its magnificent peaks. No one rived at. Sinai must be a mountain of those peaks is so separated from the rising abruptly from a plain, because others that it could be enclosed by (Deut. iv. 11) the people came near and bounds. There is no spot which could stood under it; moreover, in Exodus xix. have served as a camping-ground. The II, 17, it is said that the mount could be only two valleys which run away from the touched, and that the people stood at the mount are wildernesses of boulders and nether part of it. It must also be a sep- torrent-beds; and the space between the arate and distinct hill, because bounds valleys, which was once thought to be a were set about it, as we read in verse 12 plain, proves to be a chaos of rugged of the above-mentioned chapter of Exo- mountains rising to the height of 2500 dus. There must be a spacious area feet, and intersected by deep ravines. before it, because the whole congregation The explorers, after spending several was assembled at its base to receive the weeks in its neighbourhood, and after law. And there must be a supply of examining it most closely, as well as carewater and pasturage in the neighbour- fully mapping and modelling it, came to hood. Now there are only two hills in the conclusion that it cannot possibly be the peninsula which have ever been the Mount of the Law. This opinion, thought to satisfy these conditions. One supported as it is by the documents, will, of them, Jebel Musa, is about 45 miles we expect, become general, and we shall due north from the southern point of the hear no more of Jebel Serbal as a probpeninsula; the other, Jebel Serbal, is a able or a possible Sinai. It is otherwise little further to the north, but much more with Jebel Musa. This mountain rises to the west, being less than 20 miles precipitously from the bottom of the from the coast of the Gulf of Suez. The plain of Er-Râhah to a height of about former is 7375, the latter 6735 feet high. 2000 feet. It is distinctly visible from The object of the explorers being not so every part of the plain. It is a mountain much to put forth speculations of their which can be touched, and about which own, as to give to all interested in the bounds can be set. In front of it thousubject means of judging for themselves, sands of people could be assembled. they set to work and surveyed both of Near it are the requisite springs and pasthese mountains and the ground sur- ture. Its peaks have been described by rounding them, making in either case a the Dean of Westminster as "standing map of about 17 square miles, on a scale out in lonely grandeur against the sky of six inches to the mile. They also, from the survey measurements, made models. Now, on the dispute between the favourers of the respective hills

* See the whole case stated in Dr. Lepsius' "Letters

like a huge altar." Writing of Er-Râhah Mr. Holland says: "The plain itself is

from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai." The learned author, at the time of writing, was in favor of Jebel Serbal.