23 JANUARY 1915, Page 24

The Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund for January

(Palestine Exploration Fund, 23. net) contains, amongst other interesting articles, a learned discussion of the route of the Exodus by Lieutenant Victor L. Tramper, in which be attempts to identify the position of the famous crossing of the Red Sea. Geological evidence shows that the Gulf of Suez formerly stretched as far north as Lake Timsah, and occupied the whole of the desert tract in which the Great Bitter Lake now lies. Lieutenant Trumper makes out a good case for his belief that the passage of the Israelites took place at a spot lying about the middle of this lake, in which case Baal-Zephon must be identified with the sharp-pointed cone of Jebel Ghebrewet. It is an odd sign of the times that the Committee apologize for their delay in bringing out the revised map of the Desert of the Wanderings on the ground that its infor- mation "might prove of too much value to the enemy." Quite so. Israel did what the Turks are trying to do, only the other way about. But then Israel did not have to take guns through the moving sand. Again, the march was not opposed, and no one objected to straggling!