two-thirds of a mile across. To the south of Suez the coast describes a sharp curve, and runs so far to the west, that at a very short distance off the sea is three or four miles broad; this breadth is maintained as far as Ras Atâkah, to the south of which it becomes considerably greater. And even to the north of Suez the sea is broader. At this point stood ancient Klysma, a harbour in former times. At present it is buried in the sand, but the site is still undoubtedly marked by the ruins at Tel elKolzum. To the north of el-Kolzum the gulf contracts again, and still runs northwards for a considerable distance, terminating in a narrow strip of water from 1000 to 1500 paces broad. At Suez, where the gulf is narrowest, there are sandbanks, which stretch from the eastern to the western shore, and when the ebb is strong these are to some extent exposed, whilst the water which covers the rest is so shallow, that it can easily be waded through. On the other hand, when the flood is strong, the water is as much as seven feet deep.1 At Suez and round the northern part of the gulf there are "evident traces of a gradual filling up of this part of the Red Sea," (Robinson i. 71). Around the head of the inlet, there are also obvious indications, that the water once extended much farther north, and probably spread itself out over a wide tract towards the north-east. The ground bears every mark of being still occasionally overflowed, (Robinson i. 71).

§ 39. From the head of the gulf, running towards the north, traces are still visible of the old canal which was cut for the purpose of connecting the Nile with the Red Sea, and was very frequently renewed. It ran due east from the Nile through the Wady Tumilat, crossed the dam of Arbek to reach the

1 In the year 1799, when Napoleon was returning from Ayin Mousa on the eastern shore, he attempted to cross the ford. "It was already late and grew dark; the tide rose and flowed with greater rapidity than had been expected; so that the General and his suite were exposed to the greatest danger, although they had guides well acquainted with the ground." (Robinson i. 85).

Bitter Lakes, and finally passed through the dam of Ajrud. The Bitter Lakes are formed by a depression of the soil, to a depth of forty or fifty feet below the level of the Red Sea. They were once eight or ten miles broad, but at the present day are nearly dry, there being only a few shallow pools of salt water, and occasionally patches of marshy ground Their length, reckoning from the north east, has been variously stated. According to Seetzen, the distance from Arbek, at the north western end of the Bitter Lakes, to Suez, is only about twenty miles; whereas Du Bois Aymé states that the large basin of the Bitter Lakes terminates at a point about forty miles to the north of Suez. Stickel (Studien und Kritiken 1850, p. 367 seq.) reconciles this discrepancy between two trustworthy travellers, by assuming that on the eastern side there was a narrow tongue, running up from the basin which is ten miles broad, and reaching much farther north than Arbek. Such a supposition is not at all at variance with the fact, "that on the western side, along which Seetzen travelled, the lake terminated at a point much farther south. In this case the northern border of the Bitter Lakes must have described a curve, from the south-west to the north-east." On the side towards the gulf a broad, sandy strip of land, which is only about three feet higher than the surface of the gulf, prevents the confluence of the waters. On the south-eastern slope of this strip of land stands the present fortress of Ajrud. The basin of the Bitter Lakes is separated from the district washed by the Nile, and from the Crocodile Lake, by a similar but much greater elevation of the soil, on the western slope of which Arbek is situated (cf. Stickel p. 366). There are many facts, which afford the strongest evidence, that the gulf of Suez once stretched as far as this dam, and therefore that the basin of the Bitter Lakes formed the most northerly part of the gulf (1). The isthmus between the Crocodile Lake and Lake Menzaleh is about fifteen miles broad.

(1). Du Bois Aymé enters into a thorough investigation of the ancient limits of the Red Sea, in his Description de l'Egypte T. xi. 371, sqq.; cf. Rosenmüller's Altherthumskunde iii. 263, and Stickel p. 369 sqq. Travellers are all agreed that the strip of desert, which fringes the northern end of the gulf, bears the most unmistakeable marks of having once formed the bottom of the sea. The neighbourhood of the Bitter Lakes has very seldom been visited by travellers. But Du Bois Aymé, who went through the basin several times, says (according to Rosenmüller's Altherthumskunde iii. 263): "This basin has the appearance of having once been covered by the sea. Strata of sea-salt are still found there, and sometimes they assume the form of caverns. In such places the earth resounded under our feet. There were also small fissures, and at a depth of four or five metres we found water, which tasted like sea-water. The ground is generally marshy, with pools of salt-water. In the sandy spots, after digging down twelve or fifteen decimetres at the most, salt-water is found beneath a stratum of clay and loam. The ground is covered with shells, and is much lower than the surface of the Red Sea, from which it is divided by a sand-bank, the height of which is seldom more than a metre above the water of the Arabian Gulf. Lastly, along the hills surrounding this basin we can trace a line formed by the remains of marine vegetation, exactly resembling the line, which the flood-tide leaves upon the shore; and what is very remarkable, this line is exactly of the same height as the high-water mark of the gulf."

But

We might, indeed, be led to suppose that the basin of the Bitter Lakes was first of all filled by the water of the Red Sea, in consequence of the dam at Ajrud having been cut through for the purpose of forming a canal from the Sea to the Nile. Stickel has adduced historical testimony to disprove this opinion (p. 372 sqq.). First of all, Strabo states (xvii. 1, 25, 26) that in consequence of the cutting of a canal from Egypt to the Bitter Lakes, the water of the lakes, which had previously been bitter, was changed through the admixture of the water from the Nile. Now, this canal was cut before the one from the Bitter Lakes to the Arabian Gulf, and therefore the lakes must have been connected with the Red Sea, before they were joined by a canal. And as Stickel observes (p. 373), the proximity of the northern

boundary of the Red Sea to the Nile (the waters of which, during the inundations, flow through the Wady Tumilat to the Arbek dam) affords the only explanation of the fact, that Sesostris undertook to connect the two by means of a canal. But in the course of centuries the sea retired, in consequence of the accumulation of sand, and hence the same operation was repeated at different periods by Necho, Darius, and Ptolemy II., the excavation being always made from the north towards the south, so that the last piece was the most southerly of all. And in our opinion this piece was nothing more than the piercing of a sand-bank, which had gradually accumulated between the basin of the Bitter Lakes and the present extremity of the gulf. While this bank, now the Isthmus of Ajrud, was gradually accumulating, it must have rendered it difficult for ships to pass into the deeper water towards the north, and hence the necessity for building Klysma. Moreover, when this bank at length reached the surface, it must have formed a ford across the sea, which was dry at the ebbtide, but covered with water at the flood. There was thus a dry road from Africa into Arabia between two basins filled with water, similar to that which may still be seen to the south at Suez. The same views have been expressed by Du Bois Aymé (sur le séjour des Hébreux, in his Description viii. 114 sqq. cf. Rosenmüller iii. 264 sqq.).

If we assume that the Bitter Lakes formed part of the gulf of Suez in the time of the Ptolemies, this will throw light upon many passages in the works of ancient writers with reference to distances, sites, &c., which would be otherwise inexplicable, such, for example, as the statement of Ptolemy that the city of Klysma was six miles to the south of the northern extremity of the Arabian Gulf, and that Heroopolis (which is identical with Abu-Keishid in the Wady Tumilat, cf. § 40. 1) was only two geographical miles from the same point. The same may be said of Strabo's statement, that the road from Heroopolis to the extreme point of the gulf formed an angle with the gulf (xvi. 4, 2, 5). Moreover, unless this city was formerly much nearer to the gulf than it is now, it is impossible to explain the origin of the name Heroopolitan gulf.

§ 40. If we turn now to the interior of this tract of land, the boundaries of which we have just described, we find it divided

into two halves, a northern and a southern half, by the Wady Tumilat. This Wady commences at Abasieh (the ancient Pithom), in the lowlands of the Nile, and stretches eastwards in a straight line as far as the downs, which divide the Bitter Lakes from the Crocodile Lake, and from the Nile when it overflows (§ 39). To the south of this Wady, which is broad, well watered, and therefore fertile and well adapted for cultivation, lies the Egyptian desert, which is bounded on the other sides, by the lowlands of the Nile on the west, the Valley of Error on the south, and the Red Sea and Bitter Lakes on the east. The fertile district to the west and north of this desert, reaches as far as the Bubastic arm of the Nile and Lake Menzaleh, and forms at the present time the province of es-Sharkiyeh. In the days of Moses, it was called the land of Goshen. On the western slope of the desert stands the town of Belbeis; at the north-western corner (by the entrance to the Wady Tumilat) Abasieh, and near the eastern end of the Wady are the ruins of Abu Keishid. Modern researches have shown that Abu Keishid is probably identical with the ancient city of Heroopolis, and Abasieh with Pithom (1). There is more uncertainty about the question, whether Belbeis is to be identified with any known city of antiquity, and if so, with which? (cf. § 41).

(1). The identity of Heroopolis with Abu-Keischid, and of Abasieh with Pithom, was first proved by the French expedition to Egypt (cf. Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 42 sqq.). Lepsius has taken the lead in objecting to this conclusion (Chronol. i. 345 sqq.). He endeavours to prove that Heroopolis is rather to be associated with the ruins of el-Mukfâr, which lie farther west. The question is one of no moment to us, and therefore we need not enter upon the discussion here.

§ 41. In order that we may trace the road, by which the Israelites travelled, it is necessary first of all to search for the point from which they started. This is everywhere said to have