THE LAND OF MIDIAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5394, 11 July 1878, Page 3

THE LAND OF MIDIAN.

The Alexandria correspondent of the London Times gives the following narrative of Captain Burton’s recent expeditions and discoveries in the land of Midiau The return of Captain Burton and his party from the Laud of .Midian is known by telegraph in England. The object of the expedition was to examine into the mineral wealth of the country, which hitherto has been very little visited by travellers, and is only imperfectly known to geographers. Yet, the minerals of Midian were known both in biblical and classical times. Everybodyiremembers how Moses, when he fled from the face of Pharoah, dwelt iu the land of Midian, and married the priest’s daughter ; and how, notwithstanding this alliance, the children of Israel, after the exodus, vexed with tiie wiles of the Midianites, made war upon them, and slew their kings, and burnt their cities and their goodly castles, and spoiled them of “ gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead,” and “jewels of gold, chains and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets,” and how Moses ordered the wrought jewels of gold to be brought into the Tabernacle as a memorial. It is equally well known, too, how the Romans long afterwards again worked the mines whence these metals were dug, and many are the traces of their work which Captain Burton has recently found. Yet next to nothing is now known of the country, its wild wastes of rock, its barren valleys and precipitous mountains, its vast half-worked mines, its rained cities, and its wandering and savage population. The expedition left Suez on December 10th. 1877, and returned there on April 20th, 1878, During four months of hard travelling and voyaging upwards of 2590 miles they only lost one soldier, who died of fever. They brought home some twenty-five tons of geological specimens to illustrate the general geological formation of the laud; 'six cases of Colorado and Negro ore; five cases of ethnological and anthropological collections—such as Midianite coins, inscriptions in Nabathenu and Cufic, remains of worked stones, fragments of smelted metals, glass and pottery; upwards of 200 sketches in oil aud water colors, photographs of the chief ruins, including catacombs, and of a classical temple, apparently of Greek art; and, finally, .maps and plans of tho whole country; including thirtytwo ruined cities, some of whose names can be restored by consulting Strabo and Ptolemy, besides sketches of many ateliers where perambulating bauds like the gipsies of ancient and modern times seem to have carried on simple mining operations. Among the specimens are argentiferous and cupriferous ores from Northern Midian, and auriferous rocks from Southern. There are collections from three turquoise mines, the northern, near Aynuneh, already worked; the southern, near Ziba, still scratched by the Arabs ; and the central, until now unknown save to the Bedouins. There are, moreover, thres great sulphur beds, the northern and the southern, belonging to the secondary formation (now invaded by the trap granite), and the central, near the port of Mowilah, of pyretic ‘ origin. Rock salt accompanies the brimstone, and there are two large natural salt lakes. The whole of the secondary formation supplies .fine gypsum, and in parts of it are quarries of . alabaster, which served to build the ruins of Maghair, Sheeayh, Madiama (of Ptolemy), and el-Haura (Leuke Kernel, the southernmost part of western Nabathea. The caravan consisted of eight Europeans, three Egyptian officers of the staff and two of the line, twenty-five soldiers, and thirty miners, ten mules, and about 100 camels. The northern excursion commenced at Mowilah, the port of arrival iu Midian. They revisited the country covered.by Captain Burton’s expedition last year, the story of which will be told in his forthcoming book, “ The Gold Mines of Midian,” which I must not anticipate. After re-inspection of the ancient workings of tho precious metals, passing the traditional site of Moses’ Well, they marched upon Makna, the port, and spent a week digging into and extracting the veins of silver which thread'tho-quartz, carelessly cupeled specimens yielding 15 to 20 per cent, of silver. The second' expedition followed, and was directed to the inland region east of Mowilah. The object was to determine the longitudinal breadth of the metalliferous country. A double chain of ghauts subtends the coast, and a succession of valleys cut through these heights. Beyond tho ghauts a rough aud precipitous pass, terrible for loaded camels, leads to the Hiama, a plateau some 4000 ft. high, of new red sandstone, which is in reality , the western wall of the Nejd, or great central uplands of the Arabian peninsula, and is remarkable for the beauty of its briok-red precipices and oas’tellations. East of the Hisma lie the dark lines of the Marreh, the basaltic and doubtless volcanic • regions whence tho miners of old brought the rough mill-stone that served for their first grindings. But here the expedition reckoned without its hosts, theMaazeh, a semi-Egyptian tribe, who received them apparently with friendliness, but all the while were preparing for attack, murder, and plunder. The trap, however, was badly set for an old traveller. Captain Burton guessed the coming danger, and was able to beat a hasty retreat without bloodshed. Tho expedition, altering its plans, then turned to the south-east. They passed through the lovely Wady Daumah, once teeming with fertility, now laid waste by the Bedouin, “tho fathers’of the Desert.” They discovered the rains of the city of Sheewak (the Souka of Ptolemy), which, with its outlying suburbs, its aqueducts carefully built with-cement, its barrages across the village heads, its broken catacombs, its furnaces and vast usines, covers some four miles. Here and elsewhere the furnaces • were • carefully searched. The Colarado quartz-ore and the chloritic greenstone, used as flux, showed what ora had been treated ; but so painstaking were these old miners that not the mimitesttrace of metal was left to tell its own tale, Sheewak was evidently a city of workmen. A few miles to the south lay Shaghab, the ruins of which, far superior in site and construction, suggested the residence of the wealthy mine-owners. Here the expedition turned west. The-country was barren, roadless, and very thinly inhabited, but they came upon the ruinous traces of mining operations at every stage. March sth they arrived at the flourishing little port of Ziba (Zibbor on the hydrographic chart), built with the remnants of some older town. Near Ziba was found the southermost of tho turquoise mines. Its natives have learnt tho art of promoting the growth of' pearls by inserting a grain of sand into each oyster. The third, or southern excursion, which Captain Burton was enabled to undertake by the despatch of a second ship and another month’s food from Suez,, proved by far the most interesting to mineralogist and arobreologist alike. Gold mining evidently here takes the place of silver and copper extracting, and tho ' vast traces of tho labors of the scientific old miners in shafting and tunnelling teach exactly their modus operandi. The Marreh, or volcanic district, which they inspected, : extends as far as Yembo, and possibly as far ; as Medina, the Holy City. It is covered ; with’ ruins of mining works, and the expedition found gold threading and filming tho 'basalt, which led them to believe this district' i to be the focus of the mineralogioal outcrop. | Meanwhile, IM. Marie, tho mining engineer, .proceeded to tho southern depot of sulphur, land' discovered a third hill distant only two iqiiles from a navigable bay. Ho secured 1 specimens of this Tbck, and also.of chalcedony, ‘the, material of the finely-engraved . seals and amulets worked by tho natives. Ho found,

ancl the whole party afterwards visited, an outcrop of quartz, in mounds, hillocks, ancl gigantic reef', called "Ah el. Mavvvah,” and the disused works, of great extent, were surveyed. The caravan, now guided by the Balizy tribe, which claims some of the old mining districts, left the port of Weclj, March 23rd, and'visited the ruins of Urn el Karayyat (“ Mother of Villages ”), where the remains of mining operations lie scattered about in all directions. In parts the hill of snowy quartz had been so well burrowed into that it has fallen in, All the shafts* and passages were duly explored. The precious metal was extracted from the rose-colored schist veining the quartz, and specimens of free gold appeared. The next march .showed the Um el Kharah ("Mother of Desolation 1 ’), in which an extensive vein had been worked, 1 and pillars of quartz left standing between roof and floor. Travelling through a land once rich and prosperous as mining could make it, now the very picture of dreary desolation, the travellers reach the plain El Beda (Bedais of Ptolemy). Here the hills of rod porphyry were covered with religious inscriptions in the Oufic and modern Arab characters ; nothing Nabathean occurred. On April Bth, after traversing another quartz country, the expedition reached -tlioir Ultima Thule, the Wady Hama, the great gap worked by water in the maritime mountain chain which forma the highway for pilgrims returning from Medina, and constitutes the frontier between Egypt and'the Hedjaz, which belongs to Turkey. Here a pleasant surprise awaited the party. On the southern brink of this wild watercourse was the site of a beautiful little temple, built of white and variegated alabaster, dug from neighboring quarries. The foundations alone were left, and a few years ago the place was a tumulus into.which the, Arabs dug for treasure. The Wady had washed away the northern wall, and the adjacent bed was strewn with fragments of columns, bases and capitals, all of alabaster, and cut in the simplest and purest style of Greek art. Can

this be a vestige of that ill-fated expedition, in which Gallus was foiled by the traitor Nabatbcesus!

This closed the expedition. The party returned to Suez, and arrived in Cairo on the 21st of They received a most courteous welcome from his Highness the Khedive, Specimens of their ores will bo sent to Paris and London; the rest will be analysed in Cairo by a local commission, while the curiosities of all kinds will be exhibited first in Cairo, and then sent to the Paris Exhibition.