The greater part of Sunday (March 10th) was spent quietly in camp in the Wâdi Gharandel, and here our Bedouin servants refilled the water barrels. Although there were signs that a powerful river sometimes ran through the wâdi, the only means we found of obtaining water was by digging small wells, and then the water was very brackish.

On the next day we reached Wâdi Usêt, one of the three traditional sites of Elim. The other two sites that have been claimed are Ayûn Mûsa and Wâdi Gharandel. As to the last-named place, the absence of tall palm trees (though it abounds in stunted palms and tamarisks) makes it unlike anything we had pictured in our minds for Elim; and Ayûn Mûsa may be dismissed as too near the passage of the Red Sea. The other spot, Wâdi Usêt, though smaller, has several fine tall palms, and is altogether more what we expected, and is truly a lovely spot.

Passing Wâdi et-Tal, we turn south-west down the Wâdi Tayyibeh ("Pleasant Valley"-or "Fruitful "), between limestone cliffs which throw out a terrible glare of heat. Here we came upon an oasis of palms with water running for a short distance and then disappearing in the sand, but brackish and unpleasant. It was to us a grateful change from the glare of our desert marches. Green caper bushes cling to the face of the vertical cliffs, and the scenery is very wild and grand.

We see on our left a fine bluff of lava and conglomerate, interspersed with bright bands of black, red, and brown, and in four miles come to the mouth of Wâdi Tayyibeh, where it opens on the seashore, on the plain Er-Markha Here, somewhere on this plain, was the "Encampment by the Sea" of the Israelites. We walked down to the sea, which looked so near but, as a fact, was one and a-half miles off. It was perhaps necessary that the Israelites should thus be brought down to the sea again after many days' wandering on the desert plains with only bitter and brackish water, to be reminded of the mighty works which God had so lately done for them in delivering them from the hosts of Pharaoh.

The absence of all signs of animal life was very striking. We had thus far seen only about six black "ravens or hawks, and a very few, perhaps six, small birds, in three and a-half days' journey. And the only plant life, except in the Oasis Gharandel consisted of stunted, scrubby, greyish-white plants which camels eat for want of anything better.

As our journey proceeded, so the landscape became more interesting. Thus, on Tuesday, March 12th, in the early morning,