ernate mountain and desert.
First, the sandy waste called El Tij--the "Wilderness of the
Wanderings"--had to be passed, a tract almost wholly without water,
where an army must carry Its own supply. Next, the high upland of the
Negeb would present itself, a region wherein water may be procured from
wells, and which in some periods of the world's history has been highly
cultivated, but which in the time of Thothmes was probably almost as
unproductive as the desert itself. Then would come the green rounded
hills, the lofty ridges, and the deep gorges of Palestine, untraversed
by any road, in places thickly wooded, and offering continually greater
obstacles to the advance of an army, as it stretched further and further
towards the north. From Palestine the Lebanon region would have to be
entered on, where, though the Coele-Syrian valley presents a
comparatively easy line of march to the latitude of Antioch, the country
on either side of the valley is almost untraversable, while the valley
itself contains many points where it can be easily blocked by a small
force. The Orontes, moreover, and the Litany, are difficult to cross,
and in the time of Thothmes I. would be unbridged, and form no
contemptible obstacles. From the lower valley of the Orontes, first
mountains and then a chalky desert had to be crossed in order to reach
the Euphrates, which could only be passed in boats, or else by swimming.
Beyond the Euphrates was another dreary and infertile region, the tract
about Haran, where Crassus lost his army and his life.

How far Thothmes and his counsellors were aware of these topographical
difficulties, or of the general condition of Western Asia, it is, as
already observed, impossible to determine. But, on the whole, there are
reasons for believing that intercourse between nation and nation was,
even in very early times, kept up, and that each important country had
its "intelligence department," which was not badly served. Merchants,
refugees, spies, adventurers desirous of bettering their condition, were
continually moving, singly or in bodies, from one land to another, and
through them a considerable acquaintance with mundane affairs generally
was spread abroad. The knowledge was, of course, very inexact. No
surveys were made, no plans of cities or fortresses, no maps; the
military force that could be brought into the field by the several
nations was very roughly estimated; but still, ancient conquerors did
not start of