Asphaltum. Our Arabs picked up along the shore small pieces of bitumen, asphaltum, (Arabic el-Hum- fnarj) which we brought away.
Our Sheikh of the Ta'amirah told (as a report) the same story of its origin, which was heard by Seetsen and Burckhardt, viz.
that it flows down the face of a precipice upon the eastern shore, until a large mass is collected, when from its weight
or some shock it breaks of or and falls into the sea.
1 The Sheikh of the Jehalin, who afterwards accompanied us
to Wady Musa, related the same report ; assigning the place on the North of the peninsula. It cannot of course be
South of the isthmus ; for the road travelled by Irby and Mangles and their party passes all the way at thee foot
of the rocks along the shore. Nor is it probable that any such spot exists further North; we had the eastern coast
very distinctly in sight for two days, as we travelled along the western shore, and examined it continually with our
glasses ; so that any such marked point upon the rocks would hardly have escaped our notice. All agreed, that there
was nothing of the kind upon the western coast.
More definite and trustworthy was the account which the Arabs gave us of the appearance of the bitumen in the sea.
They believe that it thus appears only after earthquakes. The Sheikhs above mentioned, both of the Ta'amirah and
Jehalin, related that
after the earthquake of 1834, a large quantity of asphaltum was cast upon the shore near
the S. W. part of the sea ; of which the Jehalin brought about sixty Kuntars into market.
2 My companion
also remembered that in that year, a large amount had been purchased by the Frank merchants at Beirut. During the
last year also, after the earthquake of Jan. 1st, 1837, a large mass of bitumen (one said like an island, another
like a house) was discovered floating on the sea, and was driven aground on the west side, not far to the North of
Usdum. The Jehalin and the inhabitants of Yutta swam off to it ; and cut it up with axes, so as to bring it ashore.
The Ta'amirah heard of it, and went to get a share. They found seventy men already upon and around it. It was carried
off by camel-loads, partly up the pass of 'Ain Jidy ; and sold by the Arabs for four Piastres the Rutl or pound.
The share of 4he Ta'amirah brought them more than five hundred dollars ; while others sold to the amount of two
or three thousand dollars. — Except in those two years, the Sheikh of the Jehalin, a man fifty years old, had never
known of bitumen appearing in the sea, nor heard of it from his fathers.
1 Seetzen in Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. p. 441. Burckhardt, p. 394. English. Lane's Mod. Egypt. IL p. 372.
2 The Kuntar is about 98 lbs.
