DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0019
PERILS OF A STORM.
11
particularly as, like Paul, from the beginning he
had opposed my going by Petra and Idumea,
Finding me resolute, however, he soon began to
run, and brought back the camels, which were
some distance in advance, and for several hours
we moved on in perfect silence through the wild
and rugged defile. The mountains on each side
were high, broken, and rugged, and ever present-
ing the same appearance of extreme old age.
The road was rougher than any I had yet trav-
elled, if road it might be Called ; it was the only
opening among the mountains by which we could
pass at all, made by the hand of Nature, and so en-
cumbered with fallen rocks, that it was exceedingly
difficult for our camels to advance. I did not in-
tend to push far that day ; and a little before dark I
proposed to encamp in a narrow pass between the
mountains, where there was barely room to pitch
our tents ; but appearances threatened rain, and
Toualeb, pointing to the accumulation of stones and
rocks which had fallen from the mountain and been
washed through the pass, told me it would be a
dangerous place to spend the night in. There was
no earth to drink the falling rain, and, pouring
down the hard and naked mountain sides, it formed
a torrent in the pass, which hurried and dashed
along, gathering force at every moment, and carry-
ing with it bodies of sand and stones that would
have crushed to atoms any obstruction they might
meet in their resistless progress. I felt at once the
force of the suggestion; and as 1 had no idea of being
11
particularly as, like Paul, from the beginning he
had opposed my going by Petra and Idumea,
Finding me resolute, however, he soon began to
run, and brought back the camels, which were
some distance in advance, and for several hours
we moved on in perfect silence through the wild
and rugged defile. The mountains on each side
were high, broken, and rugged, and ever present-
ing the same appearance of extreme old age.
The road was rougher than any I had yet trav-
elled, if road it might be Called ; it was the only
opening among the mountains by which we could
pass at all, made by the hand of Nature, and so en-
cumbered with fallen rocks, that it was exceedingly
difficult for our camels to advance. I did not in-
tend to push far that day ; and a little before dark I
proposed to encamp in a narrow pass between the
mountains, where there was barely room to pitch
our tents ; but appearances threatened rain, and
Toualeb, pointing to the accumulation of stones and
rocks which had fallen from the mountain and been
washed through the pass, told me it would be a
dangerous place to spend the night in. There was
no earth to drink the falling rain, and, pouring
down the hard and naked mountain sides, it formed
a torrent in the pass, which hurried and dashed
along, gathering force at every moment, and carry-
ing with it bodies of sand and stones that would
have crushed to atoms any obstruction they might
meet in their resistless progress. I felt at once the
force of the suggestion; and as 1 had no idea of being