Further south, more copper mines are seen in a bare place, among low hills, all of which have been examined for the ore.
Advancing south-eastwards by the plain, some calcareous rocks are passed, and afterwards a line of sandstone,[19] with limestone over it, running parallel to, and nearly equidistant between the two primitive ridges. Wadi-el-Enned succeeds to the eastward, where a beautifully clear rivulet is found; but its water is too bad for the use of animals, being chiefly serviceable for the nourishment of numerous date palms. This spot lies at the foot of some limestone hills of the cretaceous series that join the eastern granitic ridge.
Next, on the south, comes Gebel Kuffra, where the water is so salt as only to be drunk by camels. Gebel Dochan, (smoke)—the “Mons Porphyrites” of the ancients—rising about eleven miles more southward, and in the same line with the supposed site of Myos Hormus, Μuὸς Ὅρμος, the “mouse harbour,” is too distant from our proposed limits, to receive a full description in the present Memoir. I will only remark that at Mount Dochan, there exist some interesting ruins, and “those vast quarries, from which Rome took so many superb pieces of porphyry, to adorn her baths and porticoes.”[20] On its southern side, Mr J. Wilkinson adds, “we met with some Breccia Verde; and of other kinds of Breccia we had observed great quantities and varieties at Dochan.” The sea-shore, about Myos Hormus, is bare and deserted; to the west, at some distance from the harbour, the granitic chain extends; on the east, between it and the sea, a low ridge of limestone hills, which unites with the primitive rocks on the north, comes down towards the shore. “And, in the distance, on the north, is seen the mountain El Zeit, so called from the quantity of petroleum found there; whence project two small headlands, forming two gulfs, at the entrance of which are many long sandbanks. May not this be the 'mons Eos' of Pliny?”[21]
This Gebel Zeit, or “Mount of Oil,” runs out into a promontory on one side of the Strait of Jubal; at its foot a copious supply of Petroleum, or rock oil, is obtained. It is about as liquid as turpentine, of a black or dark-brown colour, and is collected by the Greek Christians of Tur, who take it there and sell it, for rheumatism and for healing sores. The Arabs call it Zeit-el-Gebel—“oil of the mountain.”
South of this promontory the sea is studded with a number of small islands, some of which are described by Strabo; all, however, I believe, except Shadwan, which is of secondary limestone, are of recent marine formation—chiefly of Coral.
(Conclusion in our next Number.)
[5] Procopii de Bell. Pers., lib. i., cap. 19.
[6] Procop. de Ædificiis Justiniani, lib. v., cap, 8. Tom. ii. Edit. Par. 1663.
[7] 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 Αἰλὰμ occurring in the Alexandrine MS., (2 Kings xvi. 6; and 2 Chron. viii. 17), for Αἰλὰθ, which is used in the LXX., in those verses. So Αἰλὰμ had here been mistaken for Αἰλεὶμ, Elim, the word which is found in Exodus, xvi. 1; of the LXX.
[8] How Robinson could suppose that this might afford a trace of Eziongaber, I cannot imagine. See Bib. Res., vol. i., pp. 251, 268.