CHAPTER III. Scenes of the Exodus. THE DESERT EL TIH-MOUNT SINAI-EDOM AND PETRA. 66 Of FROM Egypt, with its fertile valley, and the magnificent rins which display its ancient splendour, we have now to nduct the reader to the dreary Desert "El-Tih," or he Wandering," as it is still called; that "great and terible wilderness," which entombed an entire generation of the Israelites, and so little changed that we are able to trace the general direction of their march, and even to fix certain of their stations. An inspection of the annexed Map will show the peculiar configuration of the peninsula of Sinai. The interior is an irregular plateau, or table-land, of sand or gravel, intersected, however, with numerous "wadies," or valleys, descending in different directions, which, serving as channels for the rains, and retaining their waters, exhibit some little vegetation, principally the retem, or juniper of the Bible, the tamarisk, the thorny acacia, coarse grass, and in very moist situations, patches of reeds and tufts of stunted palms. This central plateau is bounded on the north by the more elevated hills of Palestine; on the east by the Wady Arabah, a deep depression; continuing the valley of the Jor. dan from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba; and on the south by the lofty congregation of mountains which, commencing with the chalk and limestone formation at Wady Ghurundel, ascends through the sandstone to the granite CHAPTER III. Scenes of the Exodus. THE DESERT EL TIH-MOUNT SINAI-EDOm and Petra. FROM Egypt, with its fertile valley, and the magnificent ruins which display its ancient splendour, we have now to conduct the reader to the dreary Desert "El-Tih," or 66 Of the Wandering," as it is still called; that "great and terrible wilderness," which entombed an entire generation of the Israelites, and so little changed that we are able to trace the general direction of their march, and even to fix certain of their stations. An inspection of the annexed Map will show the peculiar configuration of the peninsula of Sinai. The interior is an irregular plateau, or table-land, of sand or gravel, intersected, however, with numerous "wadies," or valleys, descending in different directions, which, serving as channels for the rains, and retaining their waters, exhibit some little vegetation, principally the retem, or juniper of the Bible, the tamarisk, the thorny acacia, coarse grass, and in very moist situations, patches of reeds and tufts of stunted palms. This central plateau is bounded on the north by the more elevated hills of Palestine; on the east by the Wady Arabah, a deep depression; continuing the valley of the Jor· dan from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba; and on the south by the lofty congregation of mountains which, commencing with the chalk and limestone formation at Wady Ghurundel, ascends through the sandstone to the granite |