"We came into a large valley, or rather plateau, called Hadharah, where we pitched our tents for the night." The centre peak of Serbal was here distinctly seen. This great plain or valley extends for upwards of thirty miles . . . The name, accurately written in Arabic, exactly agrees with the Hebrew Hazeroth. "I have not the slightest doubt," writes Dr. Wilson, "that in some part of this valley was the station of the Israelites, mentioned in Numbers." After some further wanderings, and crossing the valley Arabah,

which is the continuation of the valley of the Jordan, Dr. Wilson and his companions pitched their tent in "the valley which leads up to the flanks of Mount Hor, and alongside of thence to Petra, the wonderful and mysterious Selah, or city of the rock, which we had come so far through the great and terrible wilderness to inspect. As soon as we were able, we took out our Bibles, and read Numb. xx. This portion of the divine word carried us back, with melancholy interest, to the times when Israel vainly demanded of his brother Esau a way through his territory; and when the consecrated brother of Moses died upon the top of that very mount, the summits of which the sun, sinking in the western wastes, in the ocean of desolation over which we had passed, was still gilding with subdued radiance."-See DR. WILSON'S Lands of the Bible.

"I HAVE now become quite in love with our desert life, notwithstanding the exposure and fatigue which are inseparable from our movements. (Our faithful African servant) is sure to have a cup of coffee ready for us, before we can leave our sandy couch... The Arabs began to stir and chatter around us. Their first concern is their camels, which they recall from their wanderings. A piece of bread generally serves these simple and hardy people for their morning meal; and they make all due haste in its mastication, that they

may have a little time to luxuriate among the fumes of the pipe, which they consider indispensable to their existence... We have become quite reconciled to rolling and pitching on our lofty conveyancers, the camels, (and) can write, and even rudely sketch with our pencils (while riding on them.")-DR. WILSON.

ISLAND OF GRAIA.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"(THEY) encamped at Ezion-gaber."-Num. xxxiii. 35. "King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom."-1 Kings ix. 26.

"The ships were broken at Ezion-geber."-1 Kings xxii. 48.

"(Azariah) built Elath, and restored it to Judah."2 Kings xiv. 22.

[Deut. ii. 8; 2 Kings xvi. 6. ; 2 Chron. viii. 17; xx. 36.]

In very ancient times, there lay at this extremity of the Eastern Gulf of the Red Sea, two towns of note in Scripture history, Ezion-geber and Elath. The former is mentioned first, as a station of the Israelites, and both towns are again named after they had left Mount Hor, as the point where they turned eastward from the Red Sea in order to pass around on the eastern side of the land of Edom. That they were near each

other is also said expressly in another place.

Ezion-geber became famous as the port where Solomon, and after him Jehoshaphat, built fleets to carry on a commerce with Ophir. No trace of it seems now to remain, unless it be in the name of a small valley some distance north of Akabah.

Elath, called also Ailah by the Greeks and Romans, appears to have supplanted by degrees its less fortunate neighbour; perhaps after having been rebuilt by Azariah, (Uzziah) 800 years, B.C. Some fifty years later it was taken from the Jews by Rezin, king of Syria, and never came again into their possession.

In the days of Jerome it was still a place of trade to India, and a Roman legion was stationed here. Ailah became early the seat of a Christian Church, and we have the names of four bishops of Ailah in Church history.

In A.D. 630 it submitted to the arms of Mahomet, and from this time onward, became shrouded in Mahommedan darkness.

Before A.D. 1300, it was deserted; for Abulfeda expressly writes of Ailah, " In our day it is a fortress, to which a governor is sent from Egypt. It had a small castle in the sea; but this is now abandoned, and the governor removed to the fortress on the shore." Such as Ailah was in the days of Abulfeda, is Akabah now. Mounds of rubbish alone mark the site of the town; while a fortress, occupied by a governor and a small