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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1879)
March, 1879 68 THE WEST SHORE. oik KOKKN.N ORRBStONDENCE. SnrM-n.-SMHkH, Pinirsvla OF I HO) 1(1 Sisal, Jan. J. ! ( Minion W'i.si Siioiik: With the observer supposed ti be looking newly N. N. W., tin- Illustration m i ompany ing ihi. letter presents very truthful view ut the southern extremity of what in populurl v known as the Penin sula of Mount Sinai, celled by the Be dodM RtU Mihnmmcd; the word rat lcing the Arabic equiralenl for " cape." It will lc observed that (he view in taken from OH sMpboardi The coast along here is low, but quite abrupt at the water-line and is not visible, from at sea, for more than ten miles. The A'.ij properly consists of a narrow 1 1 i of land scveial miles Ion-, and from a observers, and a near approximation to exactness would be, Latitude i" dcg. o min. S., and Longitude m dcg. 35 min. K., from Washington, Mount Sinai hears N. by W., and is bout fifty "iles distant; it is not dis cernable from Ihe highest part of the Capet on account of intervening hills; nor can il be seen off the Cape at sea, for a like reason, lis venerable peak can he seen in clear weather, however, from a point on the coast about eigh teen miles to the northeastward from Sat Mohammed. Mount Hortt, where Moses so journed when God called him to his ureal work, stands five to ten miles a little north and west from Sinai, and the two mountains are separated from when spoken of separately, the south ci ly one is distinguished as OMerm-el. Shckh, where our party are at present encamped, and the northerly one, Sherm-cl-Moyah. r rom most of these villages along the coast, sheep, fire wood, milk, butter and brackish water, can be obtained in limited quantities. The inhabitants who eke out a precari ous existence in this portion of the Arabian seaboard, are, in the main, roving Bedouins. Sometimes a few fishermen of th.e Huteimi tribe are permitted to cultivate a few date-trees in the valleys, but they are ruled with a rod of iron by the Bedouins, to whom they pay a draining tribute. What ever celebrity Ras Mohammed may possess among the Arabs, doubtless, P, JfOHAMMED Km Sr. hall t" I mile 01 more in width. A Stch other by the little valley of El little to the eastward of the cape, there l.edja. Ths convent of El Eriayn is it a small island called 'ii.iw, a Marl) situated in this valley and makes a val- tiuhmkcn puis I little cast f this, ucd pasting place for travellers, who another IsUsd Is eiuountcud, called have descended from the mountainous fSsT the Utttt King tathei leits in region round about kite than the fonter. 7Vrss it tcpa-; The rugged point which properly laled fiom the m.oii land h a n.uiow constitutes Ai, M,hm,l , channel of no gteat depth A'a, .I,., almost wholly of naked granite rocks; aaaeaW, iUelf, is bait of interest and indeed, the whole of the Sinai renin.' .p.ite uninviting; ami the totu.st ndt suls, taken together, has been called it not an eaty task to give a papula the SSt of desolation," SO sterile sad ami reauanlc aSSCnpnOfl ol this pro. luoken is the face of the country, jetfion without chIxhU bag in hi. letter There ate two little harbors eight or familiar note, of adjacent points of ten miles north of the cape, separated more or lew repot.. The apograph! from each othei by a narrow itripof val position of this cape baa often boas rocky upheaval, and togethet called by noted, both by English and American the Arabs Sherm, or Mrmm but such notoriety is principally owing to the fact that the cape is a loved and cherished namesake of their honored prophet. Everything in Arabia that appertains to Mohammed is held sa cred by a true believer. With all their listlcssness, ignorance and cruelty, t'ic nonulace are reliirious fanatics. A Be- a douin among the Arabs, is whst s Pharisee used to be among the Jews. The Red Sea terminates at the north in two gulfs, Araba and Suez; the lat ter having been crossed by the children of Israel, in their grand exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, The precise point where this wonder, ful transit to,,L place, of course, is not known with anything like certainty.