We saw quantities of small pieces of various sorts of granite, and porphyry scattered over the plain, which had been carried down by a torrent, probably from quarries of ancient ages; these were white, mixed with black spots; red, with green veins, and black spots. After this, all the mountains on the right hand were of red marble in prodigious abundance, but of no great beauty. They continued, as the granite did, for several miles along the road, while the opposite side was all of dead-green, supposed serpentine marble. It was one of the most extraordinary sights I ever saw. The former mountains were of considerable height, without a tree, or shrub, or blade of grass upon them; but these now before us had all the appearance, the one of having been sprinkled over with Havannah, the other with Brazil snuff. I wondered, that, as the red is nearest the sea, and the ships going down the Abyssinian coast observe this appearance within lat. 26°, writers have not imagined this was called the _Red Sea_ upon that account, rather than for the many weak reasons they have relied upon. About eight o’clock we began to descend smartly, and, half an hour after, entered into another defile like those before described, having mountains of green marble on every side of us. At nine, on our left, we saw the highest mountain we had yet passed. We found it, upon examination, to be composed of serpentine marble; and, thro’ about one-third of the thickness, ran a large vein of jasper, green, spotted with red. Its exceeding hardness was such as not to yield to the blows of a hammer; but the works of old times were more apparent in it, than in any mountain we had seen. Ducts, or channels, for carrying water transversely, were observed evidently to terminate in this quarry of jasper: a proof that water was one of the means used in cutting these hard stones.