Chapter XVII: Scientific Intelligence (2)

We are thus led to distinguish special provinces in the natural distribution of animals, and we may adopt the following division as the most natural: _First_, the _arctic province_, with prevailing uniformity. _Second_, the temperate zone, with at least three distinct zoological provinces--the _European temperate zone_, west of the Ural Mountains, the _Asiatic temperate zone_ east of the Ural Mountains, and the _American temperate zone_, which may be subdivided into two, the _eastern_ and the _western_--for the animals east and west of the Rocky Mountains differ sufficiently to constitute two distinct zoological provinces. Next, the tropical zone, containing the _African zoological province_, which extends over the main part of the African continent, including all the country south of the Atlas and north of the Cape Colonies; the _tropical Asiatic province_, south of the great Himalayan chain, and including the Sunda Islands, whose _Fauna_ has quite a continental character, and differs entirely from that of the Islands of the Pacific, as well as from that of New Holland; the _American tropical province_, including Central America, the West Indies, and tropical South America. _New Holland_ constitutes in itself a special province, notwithstanding the great differences of its northern and southern climate, the animals of the whole continent preserving throughout their peculiar typical character. But it were a mistake to conceive that the _Faunæ_ or natural groups of animals are to be limited according to the boundaries of the mainland. On the contrary we may trace their natural limits into the ocean, and refer to the temperate European _Fauna_ the eastern shores of the Atlantic, as we refer its western shores to the American temperate _Fauna_. Again, the eastern shores of the Pacific belong to the western American _Fauna_, as the western Pacific shores belong to the Asiatic _Fauna_. In the Atlantic Ocean there is no purely oceanic _Fauna_ to be distinguished, but in the _Pacific_ we have such a _Fauna_, entirely marine in its main character, though interspread with innumerable islands extending east of the Sunda Islands and New Holland to the western shores of tropical America. The islands west of this continent seem, indeed, to have very slight relations in their zoological character with the western parts of the mainland. South of the tropical zone we have the _South American temperate Fauna_, and that of the _Cape of Good Hope_, as other distinct zoological provinces. Van Diemen's Land, however, does not constitute a zoological province in itself, but belongs to the province of New Holland, by its zoological character. Finally, the antarctic circle encloses a special zoological province, including the _antarctic Fauna_, which, in a great measure, corresponds to the arctic _Fauna_ in its uniformity, though it differs from it in having chiefly a maritime character, while the arctic _Fauna_ has an almost entirely continental aspect.

The fact that the principal races of man, in their natural distribution, cover the same extent of ground as the great zoological provinces, would go far to shew that the differences which we notice between them are also primitive; but for the present we shall abstain from further details upon a subject involving so difficult problems as the question of the unity or plurality of origin of the human family, satisfied as we are to have shewn that animals, at least, did not originate from a common centre, nor from single pairs, but according to the laws which at present still regulate their existence.

_Additional Illustrations of the Geographical Distribution of
Animals._

I.--_Geographical Distribution of Sturgeons._[2]

Footnote 2: Agassiz's Lake Superior, p. 264.

The sturgeons are generally large fishes, which live at the bottom of the water, feeding with their toothless mouths upon decomposed organized substances. Their movements are rather sluggish, resembling somewhat those of the cod-fish.

Their geographical distribution is quite peculiar, and constitutes one of their prominent peculiarities. Located as they are, in the colder portions of the temperate zone, they inhabit either the fresh waters or the seas exclusively, or alternately both these elements,--remaining during the larger part of the year in the sea, and ascending the rivers in the spawning season. Although adapted to the cold regions of the temperate, they do not seem to extend into the arctic zone, and I am not aware that they have been observed in any of the waters of the warmer half of the temperate zone. The great basin of salt-water lakes or seas which extends east of the Mediterranean, seems to be their principal abode in the Old World, or at least the region in which the greater number of species occur; and each species takes a wide range, extending up the Danube and its tributaries, and all the Russian rivers emptying into the Black Sea. From the Caspian they ascend the Wolga in immense shoals, and are found further east in the lakes of Central Asia, even as far as the borders of China. The great Canadian lakes constitute another centre of distribution of these fishes in the New World, but here they are not so numerous, nor do they ever occur in contact with salt water in this basin.

Northwards, there is another great zone of distribution of sturgeons, which inhabit all the great northern rivers emptying into the Arctic Sea, in Asia as well as in America. They occur equally in the intervening seas, being found on the shores of Norway and Sweden, in the Baltic and North Seas, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, from which they ascend the northern rivers of Germany, as well as those of Holland, France, and Great Britain. Even the Mediterranean and the Adriatic have their sturgeons, though few in number. There are also some on the Atlantic shores of North America, along the British possessions as well as the northern and middle United States. They seem to be exceedingly numerous in the Northern Pacific, being found everywhere from Behring's Straits and Japan to the northern shores of China, and on the north-west coast of America, as far south as the Columbia River. Again, the so-called western waters of the United States have their own species, from the Ohio down to the lower portion of the Mississippi, but it does not appear that these species ascend the rivers from the Gulf of Mexico. I suppose them to be rather entirely fluviatile, like those of the great Canadian lakes.

Beyond the above limits southwards there are nowhere sturgeons to be found, not even in the Nile, though emptying into a sea in which they occur; and as for the great rivers of Southern Asia and of tropical Africa, not only the sturgeons, but another family is wanting there,--I mean the family of _Goniodonts_, which in Central and Southern America takes the place of the sturgeons of the north. Again, all the species in different parts of the world are different.

It is a most extraordinary fact, which will hereafter throw much light upon the laws of geographical distribution of animals and their mode of association, viz., that certain families are entirely circumscribed within comparatively narrow limits, and that their special location has an unquestionable reference to the location of other animals; or, in other words, that natural families, apparently little related to each other, are confined to different parts of the world, but are linked together by some intermediate form, which itself is located in the intermediate track between the two extremes. In the case now before us, we have the sturgeons extending all around the world in the northern temperate hemisphere, in its seas as well as in its fresh waters, all closely related to each other. Neither in Asia nor in Africa is there an aberrant form of that type, or any representative type in the warmer zones; but in North America we have the genus _Scaphirhynhus_, which occurs in the Ohio and Mississippi, and which forms a most natural link with the family of _Goniodonts_, all the species of which are confined exclusively to the fresh waters of Central and South America. The closeness of this connection will be at once perceived by attempting to compare the species of true _Sonicariæ_ with the _Scaphirhynhus_. I know very well, that the affinities of _Goniodonts_ and _Siluroids_ with sturgeons are denied, but I still strongly insist upon their close relationship, which I hope to establish satisfactorily in a special paper, as I continued to insist upon the relation between sturgeons and gar-pikes, at one time positively contradicted and even ridiculed. I trust then to be able to shew, that the remarkable form of the brains of _Siluridæ_ comes nearer to that of sturgeons and _Lepidostei_ than to that of any other family of fishes. This being the case, it is obvious that there must be in the physical condition of the continent of America some inducement not yet understood, for adaptations so special and so different from what we observe in the Old World. Indeed, such analogies between the organized beings almost from one pole to another, occur from man down to the plants in America only, among its native products; while, in the Old World, plants as well as animals have more circumscribed homes, and more closely characterized features, in the various continents, at different latitudes.

As for the species of sturgeons which occur in the Canadian lakes, I know only three from personal examination, one of which was obtained in Lake Superior, at Michipicotin, another at the Pic, and the third at the Sault; though I know that they occur in all other Canadian lakes, yet it remains to be ascertained how the species said to be so common in Lake Huron, compared with those of Lake Superior, and with those in the other great lakes and the St Lawrence itself. As for the Atlantic species, ascending the rivers of the United States west and south of Cape Cod, I know them to differ from those of the lakes, at least from those which I possess from Lake Superior. The number of species of this interesting family which occur in the United States is, at all events, far greater than would be supposed from an examination of the published records. Upon close comparison of the specimens in my collection from different parts of the country, and in different museums, as those of the Natural History Society of Boston, of Salem, of the Lyceum of New York, my assistant, Mr Charles Giran, and myself, have discovered several species not described. For this comparison I was the better prepared, as I had an opportunity in former years of studying almost all the European species in a fresh condition, during a prolonged visit in Vienna.

II.--_Fishes of Lake Superior compared with those of the other
great Canadian Lakes._

Besides the interest there is everywhere in studying the living animals of a new country, there is a particular interest to a naturalist in ascertaining their peculiar geographical distribution, and their true affinities with those of other countries. It is only by following such a course, that we can hope to arrive at any exact results as to their origin. In this respect the fresh-water animals have a peculiar interest, as from the element they inhabit, they are placed under exceptional circumstances.

Marine animals, as well as those inhabiting dry land, seem to have a boundless opportunity before them to spread over large parts of the earth's surface, and their locomotive powers would generally be sufficient to carry them almost anywhere; but they do not avail themselves of the possibility; notwithstanding their facilities for locomotion, they for the most part remain within very narrow limits, using their liberty rather to keep within certain definite bounds. This tendency of the higher animals especially, to keep within well-ascertained limits, is perhaps the strongest evidence that there is a natural connection between the external world and the organised beings living upon the present surface of our globe. The laws which regulate these relations, and those of geographical distribution in particular, have already been ascertained to a certain extent, and will receive additional evidence from the facts recorded during our journey.

The fresh-water animals are placed in somewhat different circumstances. Their abode being circumscribed by dry land, within limits which are often reduced to a narrow current of water, and being further, for the most part, prevented by structural peculiarities from passing from the rivers into the ocean, they are confined within narrower limits than either terrestrial or marine types. Within these limits again they are still further restricted; the shells and fishes of the head waters of large rivers, for instance, being scarcely ever the same as those of their middle or lower course, few species extending all over any fresh-water basin from one extreme of its boundary to the other; thus forming at various heights above the level of the sea, isolated groups of fresh-water animals in the midst of those which inhabit the dry land. These groups are very similar in their circumscription to the islands and coral reefs of the ocean; like them, they are either large or small, isolated and far apart, or close together in various modes of association. In every respect they form upon the continents, as it were, a counterpart of the Archipelagos.

From their circumscription, these groups of lakes present at once a peculiar feature in the animal kingdom, their inhabitants being entirely unconnected with any of the other living beings which swarm around them. What, for instance, is there apparently in common between the fishes of our lakes and rivers, and the quadrupeds which inhabit their shores, or the birds perching on the branches which overshadow their waters? Or what connection is there between the few hermit-like terrestrial animals that live upon the low islands of the Pacific and the fishes which play among the corals, or in the sand and mud of their shores? And nevertheless there is but one plan in the creation; fresh-water animals under similar latitudes are as uniform as the corresponding vegetation, and however isolated and apparently unconnected the tropical islands may seem, their inhabitants agree in their most important traits.

The best evidence that in the plan of creation animals are intended to be located within circumscribed boundaries, is further derived from their regular migrations. Although the arctic birds wander during winter into temperate countries, and some reach even the warmer zones; although there are many which, from the colder temperate climates, extend quite into the tropics, there is nevertheless not one of these species which passes from the northern to the southern hemispheres; not one which does not return at regular epochs to the countries whence it came from. And the more minutely we trace this geographical distribution, the more we are impressed with the conviction that it must be primitive; that is to say, that animals must have originated where they live, and have remained almost precisely within the same limits ever since they were created, except in a few cases, where, under the influence of man, those limits have been extended over large areas. To express this view still more distinctly, I should say the question to be settled is, whether for instance the wild animals which live in America originated in this continent, or migrated into it from other parts of the world; whether the black bear was created in the forests of New England and the northern states, or whether it is derived from some European bear, which by some means found its way to this continent, and being under the influence of a new climate, produced a new race; whether the many peculiar birds of North America which live in forests composed of trees different from those which occur either in Europe or Asia, whether these birds, which themselves are not identical with those of any other country, were or were not created where they live; whether the snapping turtle, the alligator, the rattlesnake, and other reptiles which are found only in America, have become extinct in the Old World after migrating over the Atlantic, to be preserved in this continent; whether the fishes of the great Canadian lakes made their appearance first in those waters, or migrated thither from somewhere else? These are questions which such an inquiry into the geographical distribution of animals involves; it is the great question of the unity or plurality of creations; it is not less the question of the origin of animals from single pairs or in large numbers; and, strange to say, a thorough examination of the fishes of Lake Superior, compared with those of the adjacent waters, is likely to throw more light upon such questions, than all traditions, however ancient, however near in point of time to the epoch of creation itself.

In order to proceed methodically in this investigation, our first step must be to examine minutely, whether the fishes of Lake Superior are the same as those of other lakes, in this or any other country; and, if not, how they differ. To satisfy ourselves in this respect, we shall successively examine all the families of fishes, which have representatives in those great fresh-water seas. (_Agassiz on Lake Superior_, p. 246.) Professor Agassiz, after admirable histories of the fishes of Lake Superior, concludes with the following excellent observations:--[3]

Footnote 3: "Lake Superior," p. 373.

III.--_General Observations; all Fresh-water Fishes of North America
different from those of Europe--Lake Superior and the
Lakes north of it constitute a distinct Zoological District--These
Fishes have been created where they now live--Deductions
from this fact._

Such a critical revision of the fishes of Lake Superior, and the other great Canadian lakes, was the first necessary step in the investigation I am tracing, in order to ascertain the natural primitive relations between them and the region which they inhabit. Before drawing the conclusions which follow directly from these facts, I should introduce a similar list of the fishes living in similar latitudes, or under similar circumstances, in other parts of the world; and more particularly of the species of Northern Europe. But such a list, to be of any use, should be throughout based upon a critical comparative investigation of all the species of that continent, which would lead to too great a digression. The comparison of the fresh-water fishes of Europe, which correspond to those of North America, has been carried so far, that I feel justified in assuming, what is really the fact, that all the species of North America, without a single exception, differ from those of Europe, if we limit ourselves strictly to fishes which are exclusively the inhabitants of fresh water.

I am well aware that the salmon which runs up the rivers of Northern and Central Europe, also occurs on the eastern shores of the northern part of North America, and runs up the rivers emptying into the Atlantic. But this fish is one of the marine arctic fishes, which migrates with many others, annually further south, and which migratory species is common to both continents. Those species, however, which never leave the fresh waters, are, without exception, different on the two continents. Again, on each of the continents, they differ in various latitudes; some, however, taking a wider range than others in their natural geographical distribution.

The fresh-water fishes of North America, which form a part of its temperate fauna, extend over very considerable ground; for there is no reason to subdivide into distinct faunæ the extensive tracts of lands between the arctics and the Middle States of the Union. We notice over these, considerable uniformity in the character of the fresh-water fishes. Nevertheless, a minute investigation of all their species has shewn that Lake Superior proper, and the fresh waters north of it, constitute in many respects a special zoological district, sufficiently different from that of the lower lakes and the northern United States, to form a natural division in the great fauna of the fresh-water fishes of the temperate zone of this continent.

We have shewn that there are types, occurring in all the lower lakes, which never occur in Lake Superior and northwards, and that most of the species found in Lake Superior are peculiar to it; the Salmonidæ only taking a wider range, and some of them covering almost the whole extent of that fauna, while others appear circumscribed within very narrow limits.

Now, such differences in the range which the isolated species take in the faunæ, is a universal character of the distribution of animals; some species of certain families covering, without distinction, extensive grounds, which are occupied by several species of other families, limited to particular districts of the same zone.

But after making due allowance for such variations, and taking a general view of the subject, we arrive, nevertheless, at this conclusion; that all the fresh-water fishes of the district under examination are peculiar to that district, and occur nowhere else in any other part of the world.

They have their analogues in other continents, but nowhere beyond the limits of the American continent do we find any fishes identical with those of the district, the fauna of which we have been recently surveying. The lamprey eels of the lake district have very close representatives in Europe, but they cannot be identified. The sturgeons of this continent are neither identical with those of Europe nor with those of Asia. The cat-fishes are equally different. We find a similar analogy and similar differences between the perches, pickerels, eelpouts, salmons, and carps. In all the families which occur throughout the temperate zone, there are near relatives on the two continents, but they do not belong to the same stock. And in addition to these, there are also types which are either entirely peculiar to the American continent, such as Lepidosteus and Percopsis, or belong to genera which have not simultaneous representatives in the two worlds, and are therefore more or less remote from those which have such close analogues. The family of Percoids, for instance, has several genera in Europe, which have no representatives in America; and several genera in America which have no representatives in Europe, besides genera which are represented on both continents, though by representatives specifically distinct.

Such facts have an important bearing upon the history of creation; and it would be very unphilosophical to adhere to any view respecting its plan, which would not embrace these facts, and grant them their full meaning. If we face the fundamental question which is at the bottom of this particular distribution of animals, and ask ourselves, where have all these fishes been created, there can be but one answer given which will not be in conflict and direct contradiction with the facts themselves, and the laws that regulate animal life. The fishes, and all other fresh-water animals of the region of the great lakes, must have been created where they live. They are circumscribed within boundaries over which they cannot pass, and to which there is no natural access from other quarters. There is no trace of their having extended further in their geographical distribution at any former period, nor of their having been limited within narrower boundaries.

It cannot be rational to suppose that they were created in some other part of the world, and were transferred to this continent, to die away in the region where they are supposed to have originated, and to multiply in the region where they are found. There is no reason why we should not take the present evidence in their distribution as the natural fact respecting their origin, and that they are, and were from the beginning, best suited for the country where they are now found.

Moreover, they bear to the species which inhabit similar regions, and live under similar circumstances in Europe and Asia, and the Pacific side of this continent, such relations, that they appear to the philosophical observer as belonging to a plan which has been carried out in its details with reference to the general arrangement. The species of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific side of this continent, correspond in their general combination to the species of the eastern and northern parts of the American continent, all over which the same general types are extended. They correspond to each other on the whole, but differ as to species.

And again, this temperate fauna has such reference to the fauna of the arctic, and to that of the warmer zones, that any transposition of isolated members of the whole plan would disturb the harmony which is evidently maintained throughout the natural distribution of organized beings all over the world. This internal evidence of an intentional arrangement, having direct reference to the present geographical distribution of the animals, dispersed over the whole surface of our globe, shews most conclusively, that they have been created where they are now found. Denying this position were equivalent to denying that the creation has been made according to a wise plan. It were denying to the Creator the intention of establishing well-regulated natural relations between the beings he has called into existence. It were denying him the wisdom which is exemplified in nature, to ascribe it to the creatures themselves,--to ascribe it even to those creatures in which we hardly see evidence of consciousness, or, worse than all, to ascribe this wonderful order to physical influence or mere chance.

As soon as this general conclusion is granted, there are, however, some further adaptations which follow as a matter of course. Each 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.[4]

Footnote 4: 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.

_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 Ailath, and Ailôn; Ailas, Aeila, or Aila by the Greeks; Ælana 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 century, we learn the following exact account,[5] 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 relates[6] was called _Palæstina Tertia_), reach along the Red Sea. On the shore is placed the town _Aïlas_, where, the sea ending, it is contracted into a very narrow bay."

Footnote 5: _Procopii_ de Bell. Pers., lib. i., cap. 19.

Footnote 6: _Procop._ de Ædificiis Justiniani, lib. v., cap, 8.
Tom. ii. Edit. _Par._ 1663.

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_,[7] on the shore of the Sea of Edom or Idumea--an arm of the Red Sea.

Footnote 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 Ailam
occurring in the _Alexandrine MS._, (2 Kings xvi. 6; and 2 Chron.
viii. 17), for Ailath, which is used in the LXX., in those
verses. So Ailam had here been _mistaken_ for Aileim, _Elim_, the
word which is found in Exodus, xvi. 1; of the LXX.

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 hence, 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.

Not far from Wadi Ghadyan,[8] 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_.

Footnote 8: How Robinson could suppose that this might afford a
_trace_ of Eziongaber, I cannot imagine. See Bib. Res., vol. i.,
pp. 251, 268.

Passing the opening of Wadi Beianeh, and still ascending, the most elevated table-land or small plateau of the Wadi-El-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-el-Jeib 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 Mediterranean.

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, 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,[9] 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 _elevation_ 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.

Footnote 9: _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.

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 hê thalassa Araba. "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_, 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_,[10] at this day exists.

Footnote 10: See _M. De Bertou's_ paper in the "Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society," vol. ix., p. 282.

After having attained the highest point, or short table-land 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_; hê Nabataia polyandros ousa hê chôra kai eubotos;[11] 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.

Footnote 11: _Strabo Geog._, vol. ii., lib. 16-35, p. 1103. Edit.
_Falconer_.

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 Gharandel, which, according to Burckhardt, have a _sulphureous_ taste, lose themselves. In the ascent of this Wadi (Gharandel) towards Gebel Kula, a mountain is climbed which is composed of _calcareous_ rocks, _sandstone_ and _flints_, lying over each other in horizontal layers. Gebel Kula is covered on its summit, with a _chalky_ surface. But in Wadi Dalegheh the mountains are _calcareous_, with some _flints_, and perfectly bare.

East of these valleys, and distant about six miles, are said to be the vestiges of a Roman road, which probably led near Usdaka--the _Szadeke_ of Burckhardt--to Petra. Near that place is a hill with some considerable ruins, very possibly the remains of what the Peutingerian Table calls _Zadagasta_; which word seems to have been corrupted into _Zadeka_, and _Sudaka_, or _Usdaka_. A fine spring, or _Ain_, is there much noted. Also, further north five or six miles, at Ain Mefrak, some ruins are visible. And the same traveller noticed, a few miles north of the present picturesque village of Eljy--situate a little east of Petra, in a more fertile spot--the substructions of walls and paved roads, all constructed of flints. The present road, traversed by the _Hadj_, or pilgrims, from Syria to Mecca, passes about five miles more eastwards, through Maan (_Maon_, Judges x. 12), placed in a rocky district. This town is divided by two hills, on each of which stands a portion of it. The fruits, especially pomegranates, peaches, apricots, and grapes, are there excellent, and are much sought after by the Syrian pilgrims. Burckhardt (p. 436), says here, "are several _springs_, to which the town owes its _origin_;" and I presume the word itself, Ma'an, is abbreviated by use from _Mayan_, signifying a "fountain."

_Fourthly._--"Petra," the Greek appellation of the capital of the ancient _Nabathæa_, or territory of the Nabathæi, and the _Edom_ of Scripture, was called in Hebrew, _Sela_; both words meaning a "rock," and the first of which gave _its name_ to the country--"Arabia _Petræa_." It is also called _Joktheel_, in 2 Kings xiv. 7. Strabo has distinctly recorded that "Petra was the capital of the _Nabathæans who were Idumæans_." (Lib. xvi.) The former appellation having been bestowed upon this people as descendants of _Nebaioth_, (1 Chron. i. 29), or _Nebajoth_ (Gen. xxv. 13), who was Abraham and Hagar's grandson, and Ishmael's first-born son. Petra is correctly described by the same Greek geographer, as well as by the Roman naturalist. The short account of the last I here transcribe: "Nabatæi oppidum _includunt Petram_ nomine in _convalle_, paulo minus duum mill. passuum amplitudinis, _circumdatum montibus_ inaccessis _amne interfluente_."[12] I will not add here any description of the very magnificent remains of this remarkable city, the city of the _Rock_--or rather excavated and carved out of the _natural rock_--whose dwellings are said to have been "in the clefts of the _rock_," (Obadiah 3), since they are now so well known.

Footnote 12: _Plin._ Nat. Hist., Lib. vi., cap. 28.

Coming to Petra from Eljy, on the east, the body of the regular mountain on that side is limestone, and higher than the red sandstone, where the tombs in Wadi Mousa are excavated. The cliffs at Petra are of _red sandstone_, which is soft and easily cut, causing the sculptures to decay quickly, unless where they may have been _protected_ from the weather. This formation extends far to the north and south, and rests on the lower masses of porphyry.

The colour of the _sandstone_ rocks in Wadi Mousa is not a dull monotonous _red_, but a variety of bright hues, "from the deepest crimson," as Dr Robinson writes (vol. ii., p. 531), "to the softest pink; verging also sometimes to orange and yellow. These varying shades are often distinctly marked by waving lines, imparting to the surface of the rock a succession of brilliant and changing tints, like the hues of watered silk, and adding greatly to the imposing effect of the sculptured monuments."

The site of Petra, in the high ravine, is called by the Arabs, Wadi _Mousa_; most likely corrupted from _Moseroth_, or _Mosera_ (Deut. x. 6), "where Aaron died and was buried." It is extremely interesting, and is well watered by a flowing stream--the _El Syk_ of Burckhardt. The _sandstone_ rocks, with their craggy and precipitous sides, have their summits resembling rounded peaks; peaks, probably owing to the softness of the stone, rounded by the effects of weather. The height of this _Wadi_ is estimated at near 2200 feet above the adjoining Wadi-el-Araba. To the west of Petra, Mount Hor, Gebel _Harun_ constitutes the loftiest point of this _sandstone_ tract. It stands out conspicuously, and is a _cone_ irregularly truncated with three rugged peaks, of which that to the NE. is the _highest_, and has upon it the Mahommetan _Wely_; or the tomb of _Aaron_, called _Neby Harun_. This peak rises to about 2700 feet above Wadi _Mousa_, or to 5300 feet above the sea.

Captains Irby and Mangles, the _first_ Europeans who ascended Gebel _Harun_, thus describe "the view from the summit." It "is extremely extensive in every direction; but the eye rests on few objects which it can clearly distinguish, and give a name to, although an excellent idea is obtained of the general face and features of the country. The chain of Idumean mountains, which form the western shore of the Dead Sea, seem to run on to the south, though losing considerably in their height. They appear in this point of view, barren and desolate. Below them is spread out a white sandy plain, seamed with the beds of occasional torrents, and presenting much the same features as the most desert parts of the Ghor. Where this desert expanse approaches the foot of Mount Hor, there arise out of it, like islands, several lower peaks and ridges, of a purple colour, probably composed of the same kind of _sandstone_ as that of Mount Hor itself, which, variegated as it is in its hues, presents in the distance one uniform mass of dark purple. Towards the Egyptian side there is an expanse of country without features or limit, and lost in the distance. The lofty district which we had quitted in our descent to Wadi Mousa, shuts up the prospect on the south-east side; but there is no part of the landscape which the eye wanders over with more curiosity and delight than the crags of Mount Hor itself, which stand up on every side, in the most rugged and fantastic forms, sometimes strangely piled one on the other, and sometimes as strangely yawning in clefts of a frightful depth."

Under the term _Nabathæan Chain_, or the chain of the mountains of Edom, I have restricted those mountains beginning north of 30° N. Lat., and which then tend round northward, by the east of Petra. They are the loftiest on the east, attaining probably to an altitude of 3000 feet above the Wadi-el-Araba. This chain presents to the view, on the east, long elevated ranges of _limestone_, sometimes with _flints_, but of more easy slopes, _without_ precipices, being smooth and rounded. Further still to the east, the high plateau of the Great Eastern Desert--of which _El Nejd_ is a portion--stretches out to an almost indefinite extent. To the west and north, and around Mount _Hor_, lofty party-coloured _sandstone_ ridges and cliffs prevail; then succeed high masses of _porphyry_, constituting the body of the mountains, but _lower_ than the _sandstone_. And, lastly, more northwards, the chain sinks down into low hills of _argillaceous_ rock, or of _limestone_.

The entire breadth of the _Seir_ range seems not to exceed eighteen English miles, between Wadi-el-Araba and the Eastern Desert; whilst that of the more northern, or _Nabathæan chain_, does not exceed twenty-two miles between those districts.

Going west from Petra, the valley of the _Araba_ is again entered, where the deeper _Wadi-el-Jeib_ is seen to wind along, very near the middle of it, from the south, then sweeping off NW., it meets the _Wadi-el-Jerafah_, which comes in from the SW. Afterwards, it is called only _Wadi-el-Jeib_; and being a deep valley within a larger valley, it forms the chief water-course of the greater portion of the Araba, and carries down to the Dead Sea, in the wet season, an immense body of water.

El Araba, more to the north of Gebel Harun, is much wider; in parts of it there are _gravel_ hills; and here and there, masses of _porphyry_ lie about in the sand, having been washed down by the torrents. Eleven or twelve miles north of that Mount (_Hor_), occurs the pass of _Nemela_ among low hills of _limestone_, or rather a yellowish _argillaceous_ rock, the dark steep mass of the mountain being _porphyry_, as before described; thence the Wadi ascends between the porphyry and limestone formations; and on the top is a little basin of _yellow sandstone_ capping the _porphyry_.

Coming back southward through the Wadi-el-Araba, as far as the _embouchure_ of the valley of the _Jerafah_--meaning "gullying,"--which is about a mile wide, the mountains on this west side are found to be composed of _chalk_ and _limestone_; and, in many places, with large pieces of black _flint_.

On the north, and to the east of Lussan, the mountains of Idumæa are lofty, consisting of precipitous _limestone_ ranges; the solitary conical mount, about 600 feet above the plain, named _Gebel Araif-el-Naka_--"the crest of a she-camel," forms a conspicuous object; it is _calcareous_, and strewed with _flints_. Low ridges extend from it westward and eastward; the latter terminating in a headland or bluff, called Gebel _Makrah_.

The wide sandy _Wadi-el-Ghudhagidh_--the _Ghudhaghidh_ of Robinson--is probably the _Gudgodah_; or, as it is written in Hebrew, _Ghudghodah_, mentioned in Deut. x. 7, whither the Israelites journeyed from Mosera (_Wadi Mousa_) after Aaron's death. After this valley were some low _chalky_ cliffs, and then succeeded a barren _flinty_ tract.

Towards the NW. and W., a broad open district stretches out apparently to _Gebel Jaraf_, said to be 1300 feet above the sea level, through which is the course of the _Wadi Khereir_, elevated about 1000 feet at its nearest point to that mount, and flowing northward into the large _Wadi-el-Agaba_,--upon one side, and to _Gebel Yelak_, the "white mountain," on the other side; but it is broken in some places by _limestone_ or _chalk_ hills.

The Wadi Ghudhagidh, and the more southern tributaries of the Jerafah, flow to the NE. to the Dead Sea, as already explained; and they, with some smaller winter torrents that unite with them, are the only water-courses in this part of _Arabia Petræa_ which supply that sea. On the SE. of the upper Jerafah, some low _limestone_ ridges present themselves; but, on the other side is the _sandy_ plain _El Adhbeh_: beyond this, northwards, follows a level plain covered with pebbles and black _flints_. The high West Desert, called by the Arabs El Tyh, the "wandering," and so named in Edrisi and Abul-feda, near its centre at _Nakhl_, signifying "date trees" (at which station there exists a grove of those trees), at an elevation of near 1500 feet above the sea, consists of vast plains, or _plateaux_ of varying, mostly higher, altitudes, a sandy, flinty, or gravelly soil, and limestone hills of the _cretaceous_ or secondary formation, having very irregular ridges disposed in different directions.

The numerous _Wadis_, or water-courses, and winter torrents of this enormous desert, all run to the N. or NW., and pour their waters into the Mediterranean Sea; while those _Wadis_ that lie on the other side of the Great Mountain range, which bounds the desert in its western and southern extremities--_Gebel-el-Rahah_ and _Gebel-el-Tyh_--divide their waters, and so supply, in part, the Gulf of _Suez_, and in part the Gulf of _Akaba_. Of the former _Wadis_, two are the principal; namely, _Wadi-el-Agaba_, which rises somewhat to the east of the line of 34° E. long.; and _Wadi-el-Arish_, which Russegger and later authors affirm as springing to the _west_ of it, and of _Gebels_ Heiyalah, Yelak, and Mishea, and of which _Wadi Nesil_ seems to me to be only a tributary.

The chain called _Gebel-el-Egmeh_, or _El Odjme_ by Burckhardt, appears, as he says, _chalky_; and such, also, is the soil of the plain, and frequently covered with _black_ pebbles (_flints_); it unites with the higher chain of the Gebel-el-Tyh, about the centre of the Peninsula,--that is to say, of the _Peninsular Triangle_, and where the branches North-el-Tyh and South-el-Tyh separate. There the height of the summit of _El Tyh_ is given by Russegger as 4322 Paris feet, or 4615 English feet, above the sea; descending thence by the pass of Mureikhi, into the sandy plain of _Debbet-el-Ramleh_, the elevation of that plateau, just about the middle of it, and about half way to the head of _Wadi-el-Sheikh_, is near 4000 feet above the sea level; Alahadar being a little to the east.

In the Wadi _El Sheikh_, meaning the "Valley of the Elder," or "Chief," which is one of the principal valleys in the Peninsula, before coming to "Moses' seat" (_Mokad Seidna Mousa_), occurs a range of low hills of a substance called _Taffal_, chiefly a detritus of the _felspar_ of _granite_, like pipe clay. The easiest approach to the present Sinaic district is by the east side of this Wadi, which leads into the wider Wadi, or plain _El Raha_, _i.e._, a "plain surrounded by hills." The view of Gebels _El Deir_ ("The Convent"), the now-termed _Horeb_, _Humer_ (red), and others, from thence is very striking. The lower granitic mountains of the present _Sinai_ are more regularly shaped than the upper; being less rugged, they have _no_ insulated _peaks_; and their summits terminate in smooth _curves_. Whilst in the ascent to the higher mountains, _peaks on peaks arise_, of the form of sharp cones, and of various altitudes. _Gebel Mousa_, or "Moses' Mount," is of _red granite_ for about half-way up; all the rest being a _yellowish granite_, with small _black_ grains, and from _Wadi Leja_ ("asylum"), these colours appear most distinct. The height of the apex of G. _Mousa_ peak, which does not exceed fifty yards in width, was ascertained by Lieutenant Wellsted, from the _mean_ of observations, to be 7505 feet above the sea of Akaba; and that late, able, and lamented officer, who was upon that summit in _January_, and "enjoyed the advantage of a clear serene atmosphere," which, in a more advanced season of the year, would have been hazy, with a blue mist, arising from the powerful sun, "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 mountain." He has also well described the most extensive view from that peak, as follows:--

"The Gulfs of Suez and Akaba are distinctly visible; from the
dark-blue waters of the latter, the island of _Tiran_, considered
by the ancient geographers as sacred to _Isis_,[13] rears itself.
Mount Agrib (_Garib_), on the other hand, points out 'the land of
bondage.' Before me is St _Catherine_, 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."
... The monkish "Mount _Sinai_ itself, and the hills which compose
the district in its immediate vicinity, rise in sharp, isolated,
conical peaks. From their steep and shattered sides huge masses
have been splintered, leaving fissures rather than valleys between
their remaining portions. These form the highest part of the range
of mountains that spread out over the Peninsula, and are very
generally, in the winter months, covered with snow, the melting of
which occasions the torrents which everywhere devastate the plains
below. The peculiarities of its _conical_ formation, render this
district yet more distinct from the adjoining heights that appear
in successive ridges beyond it, while the valleys which intersect
them are so narrow that few can be perceived. No villages and
castles, as in Europe, here animate the picture; no forests,
lakes, or falls of water, break the silence and monotony of the
scene. All has the appearance of a vast and desolate wilderness,
either grey, darkly-brown, or wholly black."[14]

Footnote 13: _Isis_ is supposed to be the same as _Io_, and the
island of Tiran is evidently, as I have already stated in a
preceding note, that which Procopius names Iôtabê, _Iotabe_. This
word is probably derived from Ious ta abata,--the _shrine_, or
sacred place, of _Io_.

Footnote 14: Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., p. 97.