Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/256

236 ARABIA [GENERAL FEATURED Divisions I" describing Arabia, the ancients, whose knowledge of Arabia, on the subject was slight, were accustomed to lay down an imaginary tripartite division, founded on the natural qualities of those districts with which they were more or less acquainted; and accordingly portioned off Arabia into Pctrsea, Deseila, and Felix, or the Stony, the Desert, and the Happy; without, however, assigning any very distinct boundaries to these regions. More modern geographers, Eastern and European, have, with better but still inade quate information, either multiplied or confounded the main divisions of the peninsula. Much indeed of its surface is even now unknown to us, except by the uncertain hearsay of Arab narrators. However, the ground-plan laid down by Niebuhr, the most accurate and painstaking of travellers, is substantially correct, and has been so often confirmed, never invalidated, by later discoveries, that we may safely follow its indications. Sinaitic Beginning from the north-west, the first district we meet 1 eransuU, with is that of the Sinaitic peninsula, a small triangle having its apex on the Red Sea, its base on Palestine, and its sides formed by the Gulf of Suez on the west, and that of Akabah on the east. It is a mere collection of naked rocks and craggy precipices, intersected by long narrow defiles and sandy valleys, in which tamarisk bushes, dwarf acacias, thorny shrubs, and some kinds of euphorbia, are almost the only vegetation; in a few favoured spots a cluster of wild date-palms may occasionally be met with; and the scanty soil after the spring rains becomes sprinkled over with thin blades of grass that the summer suns soon wither. Running water, except a few rivulets, the result of the spring or autumn rains, none of which outlast the summer, there is none; but in its stead the traveller meets with a stagnant and brackish pool here and there under the shelter of some overhanging rock, or a not less brackish welL In the centre of this dreary district rises the famoxis mountain group, one particular summit of which, though not the highest, is conjectured to have been the Biblical Sinai. At its foot lies Wadi Feyran, a valley several miles in extent, and the only tolerably fertile piece of ground in the whole region. The climate, allowing for the increase of heat consequent on a southerly latitude, resembles in the main that of Syria, rainy in the winter and early spring, with passing storms in autumn; at other times it is uniformly dry and clear. The summer temperature reaches in the valleys, and particularly in the great deso late gully called the " Ghowr," which is a continuation of the Dead Sea hollow, a height of 118 Fahr. in the shade; during the night it often falls to 70, or even lower. "Vinter is cold, but ice and snow seldom occur except upon the heights, where the Sinai group in particular becomes snow-capped every year for a period varying from a few days to over two months. The atmosphere is healthy, except in autumn and in early spring. Gfrology. Between the gulfs of Akabah and Suez the geological formations are almost exclusively plutonic or volcanic, the latter occupying in general a lower range than the former; metamorphic belts, chiefly of gneiss and slate, are also to be met with. Basalt and greenstone are the most usual volcanic forms, and the subterraneous action that once produced them does not yet seem to be wholly exhausted, for hot springs are of frequent occurrence throughout the region, and earthquakes, accompanied by loud underground noises, are by no means uncommon. The hot wells near Suez, called " Eyoon Moosa," or the "Fountains of Moses," are well known; as also are those entitled " Hammam Pharaoon," or the " Bath of Pharaoh," the waters of which resemble in their constituents those of the Dead Sea. These volcanic phenomena cease, however, in the zone to the east of Akabah, where rises the great and barren mountain range of Shera (the " Seir" of the Bible), a system wholly Jurassic in its composition, though its strata lie at various and often at abrupt angles. The plants and animals tenanting this district are, with slight modifications, common to the next, where, however, they in general obtain a fuller development, and under which they may accordingly be more appropriately described. The second geographical district is that of the Hejaz, Physical lying between 28 and 21 N". lat. along the eastern shore descrijti of the Red Sea, and extending inland for a distance ?! *. varying from sixty to a hundred and fifty miles. It con sists of a continuation of the Sherd mountain range, with a narrow sandy slip of level ground towards the sea, and a hilly plateau on the inland side, broken by bare and fantastic rocks. Its surface is, with few exceptions, barren ; stony to the north, sandy to the east and south ; what little irrigation it possesses is wholly from wells, deep sunk and brackish; the spring rains supply a few streams that soon dry up in summer. Along its length lie the great Syrian and Egyptian pilgrim-routes, mere camel tracks, of which the direction is determined by the scanty wells and a few villages. In the neighbourhood of Medinah alone, 25 N. lat., and at the station of Kholeys, a few days journey north of Mecca, is any considerable cultivation to be found, the result of springs ; elsewhere all is drought and sterility. The southernmost extremity of this region, marked off The as the " Haram " or Sacred Territory, but in its physical " n * raTI1 " characteristics identical with the rest, contains the town of of Mecca< Mecca. South-east of this tract rises the upland district called " Jebel Ivora," or " Mountain of Villages," fertile and copiously watered ; celebrated too for the excellence of its fruits and the salubrity of its climate ; whereas the Hejaz, particularly along its western or seaward slope, has the reputation of being unhealthy and feverish. Due south of Mecca the mountains rise still higher, up to the precipitous fastnesses of Jebel Aseer, intersected by count less narrow but fertile valleys. With Hejaz we may also reckon, topologically speaking, Geological the oases of Jowf and Douma, situated to the north-east, character both formed by broad and abrupt depressions in the inland plateau, and surrounded by a wide-spread wilderness of rock and sand. The geological formation of this region is chiefly calcareous and Jurassic, though isolated traces of volcanic outbursts are seen near Medinah and Mecca ; some also of the wells in the Hejaz that of Zemzem, for example, at Mecca are tepid ; and one distinct eruption of lava is stated to have occurred in the neighbourhood of Mediiiah as recently as the middle of the 13th century. Of plants there is an endless variety, but insufficiently Vegetation, known, for Arab botany has yet to be investigated. " Samh," a small mesembryanthemum, from the grain of which the Bedouins prepare a sort of porridge that servos them in lieu of bread ; " Mesaa," a thorny bush that bears a subacid berry not unlike a currant in appearance and flavour; "Nebek," the Rhamnus lotus of botanists; many kinds of euphorbia, absinthium, and the bitter colocynth, used by the Arabs for medicine, grow wild everywhere. The tamarisk or " Talh," the southern larch or " Ithel," the chestnut, the sycamore, and several other trees, the wood of which is, however, too porous and brittle for usa as timber, are natives of Hejaz ; so also is the wild dwarf date-palm, the almond, the pomegranate, and the " gum- arabic " tree, a graceful and delicate acacia. Fine grass, intermingled with various aromatic herbs, springs up in patches between the stones and among the sand ; but the want of sufficient rainfall and the dryness of the atmo sphere prevent any really profitable vegetation, except in the few oases already mentioned. Taking it as a whole,

the Hejaz is, with the exception of the actual and reccg-