e whole truth upon the subject.

"'As many late travellers have been led into error respecting the
topography of this district, by adopting, without investigation, the
conclusions of Dr. Robinson, I feel it to be a duty to lay before you
such facts as may be of service to those who shall hereafter journey
into the wilderness of Sinai.

"'On the 6th day of March, 1844, my two companions set out from the
convent at Mount Sinai, for the purpose of ascending the mountain St.
Catharine. I declined going with them, partly through indisposition, and
partly because I thought I could spend the day more usefully in making
sketches in the neighboring convent. After my friend's departure with
the guides, I took a little Arab boy with me to carry my sketch-book and
water-bottle, and walked up Wady Shueib, until I came to the little
Mountain of the Cross (Neja), which almost shuts up the passage into
Wady Sebaiyeh, and where I had, for the first time, a view of the
southern face of Mount Sinai. Here opened an extended picture of the
mountains lying to the south of the Sinaite range, for I was now some
three hundred feet above the adjacent valleys.

"'After much difficulty, I succeeded in climbing over immense masses of
granite, to the side of the Mountain of the Cross, which I ascended
about five hundred feet on its south-western face, in order to obtain a
good view of the peak of Sinai, which I was anxious to sketch. Here,
close at my right, arose, almost perpendicularly, the Holy Mountain; its
shattered pyramidal peak towering above me some 1400 feet, of a brownish
tint, presenting vertical strata of granite, which threw off the
glittering rays of the morning sun. Clinging around its base was a range
of sharp, upheaving crags, from one hundred to two hundred feet in
height, which formed an almost impassable barrier to the mountain itself
from the valley adjoining. These crags were separated from the mountain
by a deep and narrow gorge, yet they must be considered as forming the
projecting base of Sinai.

"'Directly in front of me was a level valley, stretching onward to the
south for two or three miles, and inclosed on the east, west, and south
by low mountains of various altitudes, all much less, however, than that
of Sinai. This valley passed behind the Mountain of the Cross to my
left, and out of view, so that I could not calculate its northern extent
from where I stood. The whole scene was one of inexpressible grandeur
and