Page 116 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

v.] SHERM TO SINAI. 97

vantage of a clear, serene atmosphere, and
was thereby enabled, by means of angles
taken to the hills on the Arabian coast, ninety
miles distant, to correctly fix the geographical
position of the Mount. The view compre­
hends a vast circle. The Gulfs of Suez and
’Akab&h were distinctly visible; and from the

dark-blue waters of the latter, the Island of
Tiran, considered by the ancient geogra­
phers as sacred to Isis, rears itself. Mount
Agrib, on the other hand, points out “ the
land of bondage.” Before me is St. Cathe­
rine, its bare conical peak now capped with
snow. In magnificence and striking effect,
few parts of the world can surpass the wild,
naked scenery everywhere met with in the
mountain chain which girds the sea-coast of
Arabia. Several years wholly passed in cruis­
ing along its shores have rendered all its
varieties familiar to me, but I trace no resem­

blance to any other in that before me : it has
a character of its own. Mount Sinai itself,
and the hills which compose the district in
its immediate vicinity, rise in sharp, isolated,
conical peaks. From their steep and shat­
tered sides huge masses have been splin-

VOL. II. ii