type, being created within the limits of the natural area which it is to inhabit, must have been placed there under circumstances favourable to its preservation and reproduction, and adapted to the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was created. There are in animals peculiar adaptations which are characteristic of their species, and which cannot be supposed to have arisen from subordinate influences. Those which live in shoals cannot be supposed to have been created in single pairs. Those which are made to be the food of others cannot have been created in the same proportions as those which feed upon them. Those which are everywhere found in innumerable specimens, must have been introduced in numbers capable of maintaining their normal proportions to those which live isolated, and are comparatively and constantly fewer. For we know that this harmony in the numerical proportions between animals is one of the great laws of nature. The circumstance that species occur within definite limits where no obstacles prevent their wider distribution, leads to the further inference that these limits were assigned to them from the beginning and so we would come to the final conclusion, that the order which prevails throughout the creation is intentional,— that it is regulated by the limits marked out on the first day of creation, and that it has been maintained unchanged through ages, with no other modifications than those which the higher intellectual powers of man enable him to impose upon some of the few animals more closely connected with him, and in reference to those very limited changes which he is able to produce artificially upon the surface of our globe.*

On the Geography and Geology of the Peninsula of Mount Sinai, and the adjacent Countries. By JOHN HOGG, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.; Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, &c. Communicated by the Author.

(Continued from page 219.)

This town is named in Scripture Elath or Eloth; in the Septuagint Αλλὰθ, and Αἰλὼν ; Αϊλὰς, Αἐιλά, or Aila by the Greeks; Elana by the Romans; and Ailah by the Arabians: it is described in 1 Kings ix. 26, as "on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom ;" and in 2 Chron. viii. 17, " at the sea-side in the land of Idumea." From Procopius, in the 6th

*The above view of the geography of animals appeared partly in an American periodical and partly in Professor Agassiz's beautiful and important work (just received) on Lake Superior.

VOL. XLIX. NO. XCVII.-JULY 1850.

C

century, we learn the following exact account,* which agrees very well with the site of those mounds-" the eastern limits of Palæstina (including of course that part of the peninsula which he elsewhere relatest was called Palestina Tertia), reach along the Red Sea. On the shore is placed the town Alas, where, the sea ending, it is contracted into a very narrow bay."

Edrisi, in the 12th century, terms the steep descent from the Desert El Tyh by El Nakb to Akaba-" Akaba Ailah"i. e., the "Descent of Ailah ;" and Makrisi, in the 14th century, as cited by Burckhardt (p. 511), speaks of "the Akaba, or steep mountain before Aila." Consequently, I take it to be correct that these mounds indicate the former position of Elath, on the shore of the Sea of Edom or Idumea—an arm of the Red Sea.

At a short distance from them, but westward, a large space, like a marsh, seemed to be impregnated with nitre, which is left incrusted in some spots upon their surface. From bence, going up the extensive valley El Araba, it is found to be full of sand drifts, with here and there a few trees scattered about; the torrents, after rain, flow along the west side, and their waters, which are not absorbed by the sand, enter the sea at the north-west angle. The width of this part of the Wadi is near 5 miles, but in advancing farther to the north it becomes wider. The mountains on the east are high-from 2000 to 2500 feet; being of granitic, or rather porphyritic formation, they are highly picturesque, and have fine, lofty, jagged peaks: but those on the west, which are sandstone and chalk, are lower; rising to about a level with the desert El Tyh, they do not exceed 1500, or in places 1800 feet in elevation.

*Procopii de Bell. Pers., lib. i., cap. 19.

Procop. de Edificiis Justiniani, lib. v., cap. 8. Tom. ii. Edit. Par. 1663. Ailah was in the middle ages considered (Robinson, i., p. 252, and Lepsius' Tour, p. 20), as Elim, the sixth station of the Israelites after they passed the Red Sea. But I apprehend that the error very likely arose from the word Aλàμ occurring in the Alexandrine MS., (2 Kings xvi. 6; and 2 Chron. viii. 17), for Aiλáo, which is used in the LXX., in those verses. Το Αλάμ had here been mistaken for Aiλelu, Elim, the word which is found in Exodus, xvi, 1; of the LXX.

Not far from Wadi Ghadyan,* towards the west side, a great marsh-like tract, apparently impregnated with nitre, exhibits an incrustation on its surface. And the water in the spring itself is, according to M. De Bertou, strong of sulphur.

Passing the opening of Wadi Beianeh, and still ascending, the most elevated table-land or small plateau of the WadiEl-Araba is reached at about the line of 30° north latitude, and 35° 15′ east longitude nearly, which is very near 500 feet higher than the level of the Gulf of Akaba, according to Herr Schubert. About that point the water-shed occurs; some of the waters of the Araba flow south into the sea of Akaba, but most are carried off north by the tributaries of the Wadi-elJeib into the Dead Sea.

The same traveller (Schubert) found the depression of the bed of that deep Wadi at about 4 miles south of El Weibeh ("hole with water,") to be 91 Paris feet, or 97 English feet below the level of the Red Sea; the commencement, or most southern limit of that depression taking place at about 15 miles northward of Gebel Harun in Wadi-el-Araba. Consequently, the Dead Sea, Asphaltic Lake (Bahr Lut)—the "Sea of Lot"-must lie considerably lower than the level of the Gulf of Akaba; indeed, Herr Schubert gives the level of the Dead Sea as being 598 Paris feet, and M. Russegger even more than 1300 English feet below that of the Mediter

ranean.

These geographical facts then afford, as some authors have supposed, sufficient evidence that the River Jordan, although taking its source at an elevation of 1800 feet in the north Syrian mountains-has not flowed through the entire valley El Araba into the Gulf of Akaba; or rather, into the Red Sea, beyond what is now the Strait of Tiran. And certainly these facts are decisive that it never has done so if the natural conformation of this region has always been the same, as it now exists with regard to depth and height. But against its having continued the same, ab initio, up to the present time,

* How Robinson could suppose that this might afford a trace of Ezionga ber, I cannot imagine. See Bib. Res., vol. i., pp. 251, 268.

much reasonable hypothesis, and several remarkable appearances may be fairly advanced.

Of the latter, some are the volcanic phenomena apparent around the Dead Sea and El Ghor,* on the north; in the basaltic cliffs and creeks nearly opposite the Isle of Kureiyeh ; the frequent displacements of strata and rocks in many places on the north-west side of the Gulf of Akaba; the coincidences exhibited by the strata in the Isle of Tiran, with those of the Arabian and Sinaic shores; and the volcanic remains and crater-like hills between them and Sherm on the south. Moreover, it may be collected from Scripture, that certain changes had actually been effected in the vicinity of the Dead Sea (Gen. xix. 25); and that they were caused by fire (Ibid. xxiv. 28); if then, at that period, the southern part of the valley of the Jordan, the plain of the Dead Sea, and El Ghor had, through igneous, or volcanic, or other agency, sunk much below their former levels, it is possible that a corresponding eleration of the land in Wadi-el-Araba might have taken place at the same (or perhaps at another) time, by the same (or by a subsequent similar) agency.

Again, it seems probable from Scripture, that the Dead Sea and Wadi-el-Araba had been once continued, or more connected in their levels; because in Joshua iii. 16, and xii. 3, the former is called "the sea of the plain (even) the Salt Sea;" and in Deut. iv. 49, only "the sea of the plain;” the original Hebrew expression in all three verses is, "Yam ha Arabah;" that is, the Sea of the Araba; and the Septuagint renders it ἡ θάλασσα Αραβα. "Ha Arabah," in Hebrew, signifies the same as El Arabah in Arabic-a "desert-plain," or a "plain." So, likewise, we find in Deut. ii. 8, "the children of Edom” described as dwelling "in Seir, through the way of the Plain from Elath, and from Eziongaber;" the Hebrew and Greek words for the plain are here also the same, viz., "Arabah.” Consequently, these passages from Scripture, shewing that both extremes, north and south, of this great plain or Wadi,

* Ghor signifies a long valley between two mountains." Refer to some of these volcanic indications, p. 122 of Dr Kitto's "Physical Geography of the Holy Land." El Ghor, on the south of the Dead Sea, abounding in salt, is most probably "the valley of salt" mentioned in 2 Kings xiv. 7.

bore the same appellation, prove that it was esteemed one entire valley in its whole extent, from the Dead, or Salt Sea, to Elath and Eziongaber on the Red Sea, or Ælanitic Gulf, in the land of Edom (1 Kings ix. 26, and 2 Chron. viii. 17.) And, indeed, according to Dr Robertson, no such division of it, as M. De Bertou and some other travellers assert, into Wadi-el-Akaba, and Wadi-el-Araba,* at this day exists.

After having attained the highest point, or short tableland of the Wadi-el-Araba, the descent in fact begins in a direct line nearly due north to the Dead Sea; it is in places more elevated, rougher, and more sandy than in others; and its width also becomes greater. Gebel-el-Beianeh appears the loftiest of the chain on the west; but this is scarcely two-thirds as high as the east range, Gebel-el-Shera (Mount Seir); the former is entirely sterile and arid, whilst the latter is covered with herbs and occasional trees, and seems to have a sufficiency of rain. The east Wadis also, which are numerous, are filled with trees, shrubs, and flowers; and their eastern and higher portions, being well cultivated, yield good crops. So Strabo, calling the district "Nabathæa," states it abounded in pastures ; ἡ Ναβαταία πολύανδρος έσα ἡ χώρα nai Coros;† and being the country of Esau, it was "of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above." —Gen. xxvii. 39.

The range of Mount Seir, Gebel-el-Shera, i. e., the mountains of a "region" or "tract," under which I have only included those mountains, commencing with Mount Seir itself on the north, and extending to Gebel-el-Ithm on the south. On the eastern side is now sandstone, veined with oxide of iron; and those mountains still further to the east, forming a part of the Nabathæan chain, are limestone with flints, of the same cretaceous series as that of the Sinaic Peninsula; they present many varied forms and shapes.

El Araba, in the approach to Wadi Gharandel, is more covered with shifting sands, broken by innumerable undulations, and low hills; into these sands the waters of Wadi

* See M. De Bertou's paper in the “Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. ix.. p. 282.

↑ Strabo Geog., vol. ii., lib. 16-35, p. 1103. Edit. Falconer.