BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF EGYPTIAN THEATRE OF WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2385, 15 February 1915, Page 6

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF EGYPTIAN THEATRE OF WAR.

The bird's-eye view of the country botween the Suez Canal and Palestine, Syria, and the Hejaz, which is illustrated above, gives a good idea of the obstacles which any army attempting to invade Egypt will meet. The nature of the coastal caravan routo is described in an interesting book written by two commanders of tlio Boyal Navy, the Hon. 0. L. Irby and James Mingles, from which we lake the following extracts: —

"We passed on our left the great lake, which is situated to the east of Damletta, and were obliged to cross several rivers and pools of salt water, sometimes up to the hollies of the camels, .the Arabs and asses swimming across. In the afternoon we saw oil our left the ruins of Pelusium, but they were too far distant for us to visit tbeni and too many pools and lakes lay in between. In. the evening the desert bccamo more hilly, with occasional clumps

of palm'trees in the valleys. In one of these we remained for the night near a, well of brackish water. To-day—Oc-tober s—we5 —we had much the same country; the palm trees, however, had disappeared. We saw many carcasses and detached bones of camels and asses, which had probably dropped with thirst and fatigue. Wo also passed a few wcils of indifferent water.

"In the morning we came near a bay on the sea coast. On the right wo saw some Bedonins. The sand now became heavier and the shrubs less plentiful; we, however, occasionally passed through some long (lamp plains between the sandhills. Wo passed over a plain of about four miles in length covered with thick, hard salt, resembling in appearance sheets of firmly frozen snow. The surface boro the weight of our animals without giving way. The road was now lov;l, which relieved the pool' nni.,maht.aJKaod deal, and we soon reached.

tho sea beach. At three in the afternoon we arrived at'El Arish. About an hour before wo reached it we stopped at some wells of fresh water, where wo found a great assemblage of camels and many l'arabeen Arabs."

Tho second of tho two routes into Egypt from Syria is the ltafa-Akaba-Suez route. 'Phis is the old pilgrims' route. Oil this road tho water supply is worse than along tho coast route, and the nature of the country makes the journey extremely difficult. In "Tho Nearer East," describing this region, Mr. D. G. Hogarth writes of the southern half of the Sinai peninsula

"With the double coast range of Midian, rising in Mowila or Ohar to near OOClOft., our survey of the relief of tho Arabian 'island' returns rouud tho head of the long Gulf of Akaba to tho desert of Till, linked by the intermittent tshaiii of Seir to the .Syrian 'Fold.' Tho lowest step, of Till, .prolonged down .the

western coast of Sinai, is the limit of Asia. It is true that the limestone ridge of Kantara, which it cost the makers of the Suez Canal much pain to pierce, links the Plateau of Tih to tho desert hills north of Suez; nor is it to bo over-looked that the formation, the general aspect of the land, and the climatic conditions on the two hands of tho Red' Sea fissure are much alike, particularly t<3 northward, whero tho porphyritic rocks of Sinai reappear ,in the coastal range of Africa.

"Continued further south by the Jebol Makra and tho other heights which line either hand of tho Wady el Araba, it constitutes the rugged coast range of Jlidian, and also, split by the 'seariver' of Akaba,-' the peninsula of Sinai. To form the last, the 'Fold' is first flattered into a triangular tableland of limostono some -1000 ft. at its highest, droning towards its base by the great JYadx el Arielij and- scarjjed at its

southern edge in a vertical fall of 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. This is the desert of Tih, or the 'Wandering.' From the foot of the scarp rise again, step by step, masses of crystalline rook, disposed like a notched - arrowrliead, point to the south; and these pile their bare steeps to form the peaks of Katerina, Musa. Umm Shomer, and Serbal, and fall abruptly to the Red Sea. at Cape Mohammed. •

'Looked at from the Red Sea, tho plane presents a Weep edge, returning from tho summit to the tilt. ■ The land rises at once from the siioro, showing steeply-inclined porp'hyritic strata to a jagged crest of sedimentary rocks, set some 20, miles back, and varying from 4000 ft. to 0000 ft. in elevation. The short seaward slope is almost entirely destitute not only, of streams but anrinnW-