A New Mountain of the Bell

Abstract

I HAVE just returned from a journey of four weeks in the desert of Mount Sinai, made with the especial object of studying the Jebel Nagous in connection with the joint researches of Dr. Alexis A. Julien and myself on “musical sand.” The “Mountain of the Bell” is situated on the Gulf of Suez, about four and a half hours from Tor by the roundabout camel route. It was first described by Seetzen in 1808, since which time it has been visited by Ehrenberg, Gray, Wellstedt, Rüppell, Ward, Newbold, and the late Prof. Palmer, as well as by large numbers of pilgrims. My observations confirm in the main their accounts of the acoustic phenomena heard, but my measurements differ widely from those of all the travellers save Prof. Palmer.