working since operations had been resumed there under Hatshopsitu and Thutmosis III., but the output had lessened during the troubles under the heretic kings.  Seti sent inspectors thither, and endeavoured to stimulate the workmen to their former activity, but apparently with no great success.  We are not able to ascertain if he continued the revival of trade with Puanit inaugurated by Harmhabi; but at any rate he concentrated his attention on the regions bordering the Red Sea and the gold-mines which they contained.  Those of Btbai, which had been worked as early as the XIIth dynasty, did not yield as much as they had done formerly; not that they were exhausted, but owing to the lack of water in their neighbourhood and along the routes leading to them, they were nearly deserted.  It was well known that they contained great wealth, but operations could not be carried on, as the workmen were in danger of dying of thirst.  Seti despatched engineers to the spot to explore the surrounding wadys, to clear the ancient cisterns or cut others, and to establish victualling stations at regular intervals for the use of merchants supplying the gangs of miners with commodities.  These stations generally consisted of square or rectangular enclosures, built of stones without mortar, and capable of resisting a prolonged attack.  The entrance was by a narrow doorway of stone slabs, and in the interior were a few huts and one or two reservoirs for catching rain or storing the water of neighbouring springs.  Sometimes a chapel was built close at hand, consecrated to the divinities of the desert, or to their compeers, Minu of Coptos, Horus, Maut, or Isis.  One of these, founded by Seti, still exists near the modern town of Redesieh, at the entrance to one of the valleys which furrow this gold region.

[Illustration:  168.jpg A FORTIFIED STATION ON THE ROUTE BETWEEN THE NILE AND THE RED SEA.

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. de Bock

It is built against, and partly excavated in, a wall of rock, the face of which has been roughly squared, and it is entered through a four-columned portico, giving access to two dark chambers, whose walls are covered with scenes of adoration and a lengthy inscription.  In this latter the sovereign relates how, in the IXth year of his reign, he was moved to inspect the roads of the desert; he completed the work in honour of Amon-Ra, of Phtah of Memphis, and of Harmakhis, and he states that travellers were at a loss to express their gratitude and thanks for what he had done.  “They repeated from mouth to mouth:  ’May Amon give him an endless existence, and may he prolong for him the length of eternity!  O ye gods of fountains, attribute to him your life, for he has rendered back to us accessible roads, and he has opened that which was closed to us.  Henceforth we can take our way in peace, and reach our destination alive; now that the difficult paths are open and the road has become good, gold can be brought back, as our lord and master has commanded.’” Plans were drawn on papyrus of the configuration of the district, of the beds of precious metal, and of the position of the stations.