The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Science
The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Hejaz (Saudi Arabia) -- Description and travel
The purpose of the last Expedition was to conclude the labours
begun, during the spring of 1877, in a mining country unknown, or
rather, fallen into oblivion. Hence its primary "objective" was
mineralogical. The twenty-five tons of specimens, brought back to
Cairo, were inspected by good judges from South Africa,
Australia, and California; and all recognized familiar
metalliferous rocks. The collection enabled me to distribute the
mining industry into two great branches--(1) the rich silicates
and carbonates of copper smelted by the Ancients in North Midian;
and (2) the auriferous veins worked, but not worked out, by
comparatively modern races in South Midian, the region lying
below the parallel of El-Muwaylah. It is, indeed, still my
conviction that "tailings" have been washed for gold, even by men
still living. We also brought notices and specimens of three
several deposits of sulphur; of a turquoise-mine behind Ziba; of
salt and saltpetre, and of vast deposits of gypsum. These are
sources of wealth which the nineteenth century is not likely to
leave wasted and unworked.
In geography the principal novelties are the identification of
certain ruined cities mentioned by Ptolemy, and the "Harrahs" or
plutonic centres scattered over the seaboard and the interior. I
venture to solicit the attention of experts for my notes on
El-Harrah, that great volcanic chain whose fair proportions have
been so much mutilated by its only explorer, the late Dr. Wallin.
Beginning with Damascan Trachonitis, and situated, in the
parallel of north lat. 28 degrees, about sixty direct miles east
of the Red Sea, it is reported to subtend the whole coast of
North-Western Arabia, between El-Muwaylah (north lat. 27 degrees
39') and El-Yambu' (north lat. 24 degrees 5'). Equally noticeable
are the items of information concerning the Wady Hamz, the
"Land's End" of Egypt, and the most important feature of its kind
in North-Western Arabia. Its name, wrongly given by Wallin, is
unknown to the Hydrographic Chart, and to the erudite pages of my
friend Professor Aloys Sprenger, who, however, suspects with me
that it may be the mouth of the celebrated Wady el-Kura. For
further topographical details the reader is referred to the
"Itineraries" of the Expedition, offered to the Royal
Geographical Society of London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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