in crossing it.  As there was no wood to be got, we collected a quantity of these bones for fuel.  Monge himself was induced to sacrifice some of the curious skulls of animals which he had picked up on the way and deposited in the Berlin of the General-in-Chief.  But no sooner had we kindled our fires than an intolerable effluvium obliged us to, raise our camp and advance farther on, for we could procure no water to extinguish the fires.

On the 27th Bonaparte employed himself in inspecting the town and port of Suez, and in giving orders for some naval and military works.  He feared—­what indeed really occurred after his departure from Egypt—­the arrival of some English troops from the East Indies, which he had intended to invade.  These regiments contributed to the loss of his conquest.

   —­[Sir David Baird, with a force of about 7000 men sent from India,
   landed at Cosseir in July 1801.]—­

On the morning of the 28th we crossed the Red Sea dry-shod, to go to the Wells of Moses, which are nearly a myriametre from the eastern coast, and a little southeast of Suez.  The Gulf of Arabia terminates at about 5,000 metres north of that city.  Near the port the Red Sea is not above 1,500 metres wide, and is always fordable at low water.  The caravans from Tor and Mount Sinai always pass at that part,

—­[I shall say nothing of the Cenobites of Mount Sinai, as I had not the honour of seeing them.  Neither did I see the register containing the names of Ali, Salah-Eddin, Ibrahim or Abraham, on which Bonaparte is said to have inscribed his name.  I perceived at a distance some high hills which were said to be Mount Sinai.  I conversed, through the medium of an interpreter, with some Arabian chiefs of Tor and its neighbourhood.  They had been informed of our excursion to the Wells, and that they might there thank the French General for the protection granted to their caravans and their trade with Egypt.  On the 19th of December, before his departure from Suez, Bonaparte signed a sort of safeguard, or exemption from duties, for the convent of Mount Sinai.  This had been granted out of respect to Moses and the Jewish nation, and also because the convent of Mount Sinai is a seat of learning and civilisation amidst the barbarism of the deserts.—­Bourrienne.]—­

either in going to or returning from Egypt.  This shortens their journey nearly a myriametre.  At high tide the water rises five or six feet at Suez, and when the wind blows fresh it often rises to nine or ten feet.

We spent a few hours seated by the largest of the springs called the Wells of Moses, situated on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Arabia.  We made coffee with the water from these springs, which, however, gave it such a brackish taste that it was scarcely drinkable.

Though the water of the eight little springs which form the Wells of Moses is not so salt as that of many wells dug in other parts of the deserts, it is, nevertheless, exceedingly brackish, and does not allay thirst so well as fresh water.