Encampment by the sea

One of the stations in the itinerary of the children of Israel, where they encamp after leavinj; Eliin, Nu 33'" [see Emm]. If the position of Elini be in the Wady Ghuruiidel, then the camp by the sea is on the shore of the Gulf of Suez, somewhere south of the point where the Wady Tayibeh opens to the coast. The curious return of the line of march to the seashore is a phenomenon that has always arrested the attention of travellers to Mt. Sinai : and if Mt.

Sinai be really in the so-called Sinaitic peninsula, the camp can be located within a half-mile. [But it is within the bounds of a reasonable probability that the ' Encampment by the Sea ' may mean the Gulf of 'Akabah, and Sinai be out of the peninsula.] St. Silvia of Aquitaine [?

in the year 388] returned from the traditional Sinai, anil especially notices the approach of the line of march to the seashore (' pervenimus ad maiisionem, quai erat jam super mare, id est in eo loco, ubi iam de inter montes exitur, et incipitur denuo totum iam iu.vta mare ambulari ; sic tamen iuxta mare, ut subito tluctus animalibus pedes cedat'). Her identihcation is that of an accepted tradition which must be many years older than herself.

It is very valuable evidence for a Christian tradition which is sensibly constant in her time, and shows no signs of liavin;^ undergone any revision at the hands of ecclesiastics. J. Rendel llABlilS.