Volume I Part 12 (1/2)

Yet the Bedawin of Midian have till late years been a turbulent ”mixed mult.i.tude,” and are ready to become troublesome again. It is only by building forts and by holding the land militarily, that the civilized can hope to tame this vermin. I repeat, however, my conviction that the charming Makna Valley is fated to see happy years; and that the Wild Man who, when ruled by an iron hand, is ever ready to do a fair day's work for a fair wage (especially victuals), will presently sit under the shadow of his own secular vines and fig-trees.

About midnight on February 2nd, the tempestuous northerly gale, which had now lasted four days and five nights, ceased almost suddenly: the signs of the approaching calm were the falling of the mercury, the increased warmth of the atmosphere, and the s.h.i.+fting of the wind towards the east. All hailed the change with joy. The travellers looked forward to ending their peregrinations, while the voyagers, myself included, hoped safely to steam round the Gulf el-'Akabah, and to trace, as correctly as possible, the extent, the trend, and the puissance of the quartz-formations. At Cairo Mr. Consul Rogers told me he had found them in large quant.i.ties veining the red grits of Petra; and I thought it possible that the ”white stone” may extend under the waters of 'Akabah into the peninsula of Sinai.

Chapter VII.

Cruise from Maknato El-'Akabah.

This ”Red Sea in the Land of Edom” (1 Kings ix. 26) is still, as Wellsted ent.i.tles it, ”a vast and solitary Gulf.” It bears a quaint resemblance to that eastern fork of the northern Adriatic, the Quarnero, whose name expresses its terrible storms; while the Suez branch shows the longer stretch of the Triestine bifurcation. Yamm Elath or Eloth, as the Hebrews called El-'Akabah, has, by the upheaval of the land, lost more of its fair proportions than its western sister. It was at one time the embouchure of the Jordan, extending up the Wady el-'Arabah to the Asphalt.i.te Lake (Dead Sea), before the former became, so to speak, a hill and the latter a hole. This view dates from olden times. ”Si suppone,” says Cornelius a Lapide,[EN#119] ”che sia un sollevamento che accadde, mentre un abba.s.samento formava il Mar Morto; e che il Giordano si getta.s.se nel Golfo Elanitico (Yamm Ailath), ci e nel Mar Rosso, prima della destruzione di Sodoma.”

For the latter date we have only to read, ”When a movement of depression sank the lower Jordan Valley, and its present reservoirs, the Tiberias Lake and the Dead Sea, to their actual level.” There is nothing marvellous nor unique in the feature, as it appears to those suffering from that strange malady, ”Holy Land on the Brain.” The Oxus and the Caspian show an identical formation, only the sinking has been on a smaller scale.

Wellsted was unfortunate, both in his weather and in his craft.

To encounter a ”sea of breakers” and ”northerly gales with a high and dangerous swell” in a wretched ”bugala” (i.e. Sambuk), and in that perfect tub, the Palinurus, was somewhat like tempting Providence,--if such operation be possible. No wonder that ”in this Gulf, in a course of only ninety miles, the nautical mishaps were numerous and varied.” The surveyor, however, neglected a matter of the highest interest and importance, namely, to ascertain whether there be any difference of level between the heads of the Suez and the 'Akabah waters. The vicinity of continuous maritime chains, varying from six to nearly nine thousand feet, suggests an amount of attraction (theoretically) sufficient to cause a sensible difference of plane. It would be well worth while to run two lines of survey, one from El-'Akabah to Suez, and the other down the eastern flank of the Sinaitic Peninsula.

The Mukhbir, like the Palinurus, promised a certain amount of excitement. Her boiler, I have said, was honeycombed; it was easy to thrust one's fist through it. Mr. David Duguid, the engineer, who on one occasion worked thirty-six hours at a stretch, had applied for sixty new tubes, and he wanted one hundred and fifty: we began with two hundred and forty; we lost, when in the Gulf, from three to nine per diem, a total of seventy five; and the work of the engine-room and the s.h.i.+p's carpenters consisted in plugging fractures with stays, plates, and wedges. Presently the steam-gauge (manometre) gave way, making it impossible to register pressure; the combustion chamber showed a rent of eighteen inches long by one wide, the result of too rapid cooling; and, lastly, the donkey-engine struck work. Under these happy circ.u.mstances bursting was not to be expected; breaking down was, a regular collapse which would have left us like a log upon the stormy waves. A new boiler might have cost, perhaps, 900, and the want of one daily endangered a good s.h.i.+p which could not be replaced for 9000. I therefore determined upon a ”Safer Khoriyyah,” that is, steaming by day and anchoring at night in some snug bay. It was also agreed, nem. con., to tow the Sambuk El-Musahhil, in order that, should accidents happen, it might in turn act tug to the steamer; or even, at a pinch, serve us as a lifeboat.

Nothing becomes Makna better than the view on leaving it. A varied and attractive picture this, with the turquoise-blue of the deep water, the purple and leek-green tints of the shoaly and sandy little port, and the tawny sh.o.r.e dotted by six distinct palm-tufts. They are outliers of the main line, yon flood of verdure, climbing up and streaming down from the high, dry, and barren banks of arenaceous drift, heaped up and filmed over by the wind, and, lastly, surging through its narrow ”Gate,” with the clifflets of conglomerate forming the old coast. Add the bluff headland of the Ras el-Tarah to the north of the harbour, and behind it the Rughamat Makna, the greenish-yellow, flat-backed ”horse” of Madyan, which, s.h.i.+mmering in the sunset with a pearly l.u.s.tre, forms the best of landmarks. Finish to the south of the Wady with the quaint chopping outlines of the Jebel el-Fahisat, resembling from afar a huge alligator lying on the water; with the similar but lower forms to the north of the valley, both reflected in the Jibal el-Hamra (the Red Hills), whose curtains of green-black trap are broken by sheets of dull dead-white plaster. Cap the whole with the mighty double quoin of gypseous Jebel el-Kharaj, b.u.t.tressing the eastern flank of its valley, and with the low, dark metal-revetted hills of the Kalb el-Nakhlah, a copy of the Fahisat. Throw in the background, slowly rising as you recede from the sh.o.r.e, a curtain of plutonic peaks and b.u.t.tresses, cones, quoins, cupolas, parrot-beaks; with every trick of shape, from the lumpy Zahd to the b.u.t.tressed and pinnacled 'Urnub; with every shade of mountain-tint between lapis-lazuli and plum-purple. Dome the whole with that marvellous transparent sky, the ocean of the air, that spreads loveliness over the rugged cheek of the Desert; and you have a picture which, though distinctly Arabian, you can hardly expect to see in Arabia.

From the offing, also, we note how the later formations, granite and syenite, seamed with a network, and often topped by cones, of porphyritic trap, have upthrust, pierced, and isolated the older Secondaries. We traced this huge deposit of sulphates and carbonates of lime from the southern Wady Hamz, through the islets at the mouth of the Birkat 'Akabah, all along the sh.o.r.e of North Midian. Here it crosses diagonally the northern third of the 'Akabah Gulf, and forms the north-eastern base of the Sinaitic Peninsula; whilst eastward it stretches inland as far as Maghair Shu'ayb. The general disposition suggests that before the upheaval of the Ghats, the Jibal el-Tihamah, this vast gypseous sheet was a plain and plateau covering the whole country, till a movement of depression, caused by the upheaval of the igneous mountains, sank in it the Gulf of 'Akabah. At present the surface is here flat, there hilly like huge billows breaking mostly to the north, and reaching an alt.i.tude of twelve hundred feet above the surface. Hence the lines stretching north-south, the Fahisat, the Red Hills, and the Kalb el-Nakhlah, look like so many volcanic island-reefs floating in a sea of greenish-yellow Secondaries.

Like the old Irish post-horse, the difficulty and danger of our ”kettle” consisted in starting it: two tubes at once burst, and a new hole yawned in the boiler; moreover, our anchor had been thrown out in a depth of seventy-three feet. Enfin! At nine a.m.

(February 3rd) we stood straight for the Sinaitic sh.o.r.e, distant thirteen miles (direct geographical), and in three hours we made the Sharm, Marsa or Minat el-Dahab--the ”Golden Anchorage, Cove, or Port.”[EN#120] Another hour was spent in steaming southwards to the Dock-harbour, wrongly so called in the charts; the pilots, and the many Sambuks that take refuge in it, know the place only as Minat Ginai (Jinai). The northern baylet, preferred when southerly winds blow, is simply the embouchure of the Wady Dahab (”Fiumara of Gold”). The name is properly applied to the sub-maritime section of the valley draining the eastern flanks of the so-called Mount Sinai. This great watercourse breaks through the Ghats which, always fringing similar peninsulas, peak to the south. It reaches the Gulf at a shallow sag marked by a line of palms, the centre of three: they are fed by their several Nullahs, and are watered with the brackish produce of sundry wells. The statio malefida is defended to the north by a short sandspit and a submerged reef; and southwards by a projection of sandstone conglomerate. The latter, running from north-east to south-west, subtends this part of the coast, and serves to build up the land; after a few years the debris swept down by the watercourses will warp up the shallows, dividing sh.o.r.e from outlier. Such, in fact, seems to be the general origin of these sandspits; beginning as coralline reefs, they have been covered with conglomerates, and converted into terra firma by the rubbish shot out by the Wady-mouths.

The southern port, ”Ginai,” is formed by a bend in the reef which sweeps round from east to south-west like a scorpion's tail. The natural sea-wall, at once dangerous and safety-giving, protects, to the south and south-east, diabolitos of black rock visible only at high tide: insh.o.r.e the sickle-shaped breakwater runs by east to south-west, becoming a ”sandy hook,” and enclosing a basin whose depth ranges from seven to twelve fathoms. Its approach from the south is clean; and the western opening is protected by the tall screen of coast cliffs, the Jebel el-Ginai, whose deep-black porphyritic gorge seemingly prolongs that of Midianite Tayyib Ism. This is a section of the Jibal el-Samghi, the coast-range which extends as far north as the Wady Wati'r.

The Dock-port, so useful when the terrible norther blows, has an admirable landmark, visible even from Sinafir Island, and conspicuous at the entrance of the Gulf. Where the sandy slopes of South-Eastern Sinai-land end, appears a large white blot, apparently supporting a block, built, like a bastion, upon a tall hill of porphyritic trap. We called this remnant of material harder than the rest, Burj el-Dahab--”the Tower Hill of Dahab.” I have been minute in describing the Golden Harbour: scant justice has been done to it by the Hydrographic Chart, and it will prove valuable when the Makna' mines are opened. Ahmed Kaptan vainly attempted soundings--he was too ill to work. Wellsted's identification of the site with Ezion-geber (ii. ix.), and the reef with the rock-ledge which wrecked Jehosaphat's fleet, has one great objection--no ruins are known to exist near it.[EN#121]

The formation of this part of Sinai, as far as we can see from the sh.o.r.e, reflects, in wilder forms and more abrupt lines, the opposite coast of Midian: there is, however, the important difference that the Secondaries and the quartz-veins, there so important, are here wanting. The skeletons of mountain and hill appear as if prolonged under water. The ruddy syenite is d.y.k.ed and veined by the familiar network of green-black porphyritic trap; the filons are disposed in parallels striking north-south, with a little easting; the dip is westerly (about 35 degrees mag.), and the thickness extends to hundreds of feet, often forming a foundation for the upper cliff. The subaerial parts are the same warty and pimply growth which appears on the other side.

Nothing could be more wearisome to the Alpine climber than such a country: he would scale the peaks and ridges for fifty feet, to descend thirty on the other side; and the frequent Wadys, ankle-deep in loose sand, generally end in steep stony couloirs.

The watercourses, whose broad mouths are scattered with thin green, contain pebbles and rolled quartzes, including fine specimens of the crystallized variety.

We landed, after an hour's row in the gig, at the central or main line of palms; and on the banks of Wady Dahab, here a full mile wide, we found the works of man, like those of Nature, a copy of Makna. The date trees and clumps are hedge-closed; two scatters of 'Ushash (tabernacles) show round towers of rough stone, broken and patched with palm-frond; and, further north of the Golden Valley, a few old Arab graves have been weathered into mere heaps of large stones. These are the Kubur el-Nasara (”Nazarene's Graves”) of Burckhardt,[EN#122] a name apparently forgotten by the present generation. We vainly sought and asked after ruins: of old, however, ”Di'zahab” might have served to disembark cargo which, by taking the land-route northwards, as the Christian pilgrims still do from El-Nuwaybi', would avoid the dangerous headwaters of El-'Akabah. Nor could we believe with Poc.o.c.ke[EN#123] that the place derived its name from the mica s.h.i.+ning like gold; his theory is stultified by the fact that mica is by no means a prominent feature, even had the Ancients been so ignorant as to be deceived by it.

The people were by no means communicative. An elderly man, with a red turban and sword by side, hurried away from us when we addressed him, leaving his middle-aged wife to follow with a babe on shoulder and a boy in hand: she also refused to speak, waving her hand by way of reply to every question. At last a semi-civilized being, acquainted with the Convent of St.

Catherine, Selim bin Husayn, of the Muzaynah tribe, satisfied our curiosity in view of tobacco, and offered a rudely stuffed ibex-head for a s.h.i.+lling. In the evening our fishermen visited the reef, which supplied admirable rock-cod, a bream (?) called Sultan el-Bahr, and Marjan (a Sciaena); but they neglected the fine Sirinjah (”sponges”), which here grow two feet long. The night was dark and painfully still, showing nought but the youngest of moons, and the gloomiest silhouettes of spectral mountains.

We set out at seven a.m. on the next day, when an Azyab or south-easterly wind was promised by the damp air, the slaty sea, and the gloomy nimbi on the hill-tops. A small party landed after two hours' steaming, in search of quartz, which proved to be chloritic sandstones and limestones. In the broad valley they found a few Muzayni families, with their camels, sheep, and goats. These unfortunates had no tents, sleeping under the trees; they were desperate beggars, and, although half-starved, they asked a napoleon for a kid, declaring that such was its price at the quarantine station of Tor. Here the errors of the Hydrographic Chart, which have been copied literally by the latest and best popular books such as Professor Palmer's ”Desert of the Exodus,” began to excite our astonishment. For instance, Ras Kusayr (”the Short One”) becomes Ras a.r.s.er--what a name for a headland! A good survey will presently become a sine qua non.

Unfortunately Ahmed Kaptan was suffering so much that I could not ask him to make solar observations; while the rest of us had other matters in hand. It was a great disappointment, where so much useful work remains to be done.

Hereabouts the sterile horrors of the hideous Sinaitic sh.o.r.e seem to reach their climax. The mountains become huge rubbish-heaps, without even colour to clothe their indecently nude forms; and each strives with its neighbour for the prize of repulsiveness.

The valleys are mere dust-shunts that shoot out their rubbish, stones, gravel, and sand, in a solid flow, like discharges of lava. And, as Jebel Mazhafah, on the opposite coast, is the apex of the visible eastern Ghats, so beyond this point the Sinaitic sea-chain of mountains begins to decline into mere hills, while longer sand-points project seawards. Such is the near, the real aspect of what, viewed from Makna, appears a scene in fairy-land, decked and dight in heavenly hues of blue and purple and rosy light--

”Where the bald blear skull of the Desert With golden mountains is crowned.”

The first sign of a change of formation appeared near the ”Lower (southern) Nuwaybi'” (”the Little Spring”), which the chart calls ”Wasit.” Here the sh.o.r.e shows blots of dead-white and mauve-red, in which our engineer at once detected quartz. Seeing it prolonged in straight horizontal lines, and the red overlying the white, I suspected kaolin and the normal Taua (coloured clays): my conjecture was confirmed on the next day. Hereabouts, Wellsted (ii. 151) also remarked the colouring of the hills, which resemble those of ”Sherm;” some of a deep-blue tinge, and others streaked with a brilliant red and violet. We then doubled a long sandspit running out to sea eastward, and forming, on the north, a deep bay well protected from the souther; whilst several lines of reef and shallow to the north defend it from the angry Bora.

This anchorage is known to the pilots as ”Wasit;” and it occupies the southern half of the bay, the northern half and its palm-groves being called the ”Upper Nuwaybi'.” About ”Wasit” the date-palms are scattered, and the large sand-drifts ever threaten to bury them alive. Behind it yawns the great gash, ”Wady Watir,”

which shows its grand lines even from the opposite side of the gulf: this is the route by which Christian pilgrims from Syria make the Sinai monastery, rounding on camels the northern end of El-'Akabah. The main valley receives from the north the Wady el-'Ayn, which can be reached in half a day. From the south, distant one whole march, comes the Wady el-Hazrah. This is doubtless the Hazeroth of the Exodus, meaning the fenced enclosures of a pastoral people; and a modern traveller figures and describes it as ”the most beautiful and romantic landscape in the Desert.” At least, so said the lately s.h.i.+pped guide, Mabru'k ibn Sulayyim el-Muzayni.

After a run of six hours and thirty minutes (= thirty miles), we cast anchor off Wasit: there was nothing to see ash.o.r.e, save some wretched Muzaynah, two males and three females, helpmates meet for them, living like savages on fish and sh.e.l.l-molluscs; drinking brackish water, and sleeping in the ”bush,” rather than take the trouble to repair the huts. They have no sheep, but a few camels; and, by way of boats, they use catamarans composed of two palm-trunks: their home-made hooks resemble the schoolboy's crooked pin. Yet these starvelings would not fetch specimens of the white stuff, distant, perhaps, two direct miles of cross-cut, seen near Nuwaybi', and still visible. They also refused, without preliminary ”bakhs.h.i.+sh,” to show or even to tell where certain ruins, concerning which they spoke or romanced, are found in their hills. And yet there are theologians who would raise Poverty, the most demoralizing of all conditions, to the rank of an ”ecclesiastical virtue.”

At 6 30 a.m. on the next day, the Mukhbir stood eastwards to avoid the northern reef. Presently we pa.s.sed the ”Upper Nuwaybi',” a creeklet to the north-west of Wasit, with a straggling line of palms fed by the huge Wady Muzayrij. From this point to the 'Akabah head all the coast is clean of man. The Jibal el-Samghi now become the Sinaitic Jibal el-Shafah (”Lip Mountains”), the latter stretching northwards to the Hajj-road, and forming the western wall of the 'Arabah valley, whose name they a.s.sume (Jibal el-'Arabah). The scene abruptly s.h.i.+fts. A mottle of clouds sheds moving shadows over the hill-crests, and relieves them from the appalling monotony of yesterday. Brilliant rainbow hues, red, green, mauve, purple, yellow and white clays, gleam in the lowlands, and form dwarf bluffs; while inland, peering above the granites, the syenites, and the porphyries of the coast, pale quoins and naked cones again show the familiar Secondary formation of Midianitish Makna. We were not surprised to hear that sulphur had been found in the gypsum of these eastern Ghats of Sinai, when a Jebel el-Kibi't, approached by the Wady Suwayr, was pointed out to us. The natural deduction is that the brimstone formation is, like the turquoise, the copper, and the manganese, a continuation of the beds that gave a name to Mafka-land; while the metalliferous strata round, in horseshoe-form, the head of El-'Akabah, and run down the Arabian sh.o.r.e, till they become parallel with those subtending the seaboard of Africa.