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terrid⚫ zone, and the tropic of Cancer passes over Happy Arabia, the air is excessively dry and hot. A great part of it is lonesome desert diversified only with plains covered with sand, and mountains of naked rocks and precipices; nor ever, uniess sometimes at the equinoxes, refreshed with rain. The sands of the deserts, when agitated by the winds, roll like the troubled ocean, and sometimes form huge mountains, by which whole caravans have been buried or lost. Wells and fountains are exceedingly rare. Those vast plains of sand are, however, interspersed here and there with fruitful spots, resembling so many islands in the midst of the ocean: these being rendered extremely delightful by their verdure, and the more so by the neighborhood of those frightful deserts, the Arabs encamp upon them: and having consumed every thing they find upon one, remove to another. The southern part of Arabia is bicst⚫ with a fertile soil, which has acquired it the title of Happy: there are produced the valuable gums, which are carried to all parts of the world; rich spices and fruits and corn and wine.
In Arabia stands Mount Sinni, memorable as the place where the law was given to the Israelites: at the foot of it is a beautiful plain, nearly nine miles in length, and above three in breadth on which the Israelites encampes. From Mount Sinai may be seen Mount Horeb, where Moses kept the |
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