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duces excellent wheat. The gentlemen procured a quantity of it for seed, under the supposition that if there is any advantage in changing seed from one plantation to another in the same country, there must be much more efficacy in seed from the plains of Jericho by the time it reaches the land of Yengi dunia."*

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We were glad to break up our encampment early next morning, as we had been the whole night disturbed by the loquacious and quarrelsome Arabs, and the half-barbarous Turkish soldiers who are quartered at this outpost of the present Egyptian ruler of the land.

The sheik would not accompany us any farther, and we made a bargain with several of Ibrahim's light-armed troopers, volunteers from all nations, to accompany us as far as a guard was necessary.

The first object of interest we saw was the "fountain of Elisha," which the prophet changed from bitter to sweet. It now yields as delicious water as any in all Palestine, and in sufficient quantities to irrigate the surrounding country for some distance. We could neither see nor hear anything of the ruins of Gilgal, which was situated near to Jericho. Our course lay due north up the valley of the Jordan. The river was on our right, a few miles distant, and the mountains on our left. The valley is about six or eight miles wide, between two ranges of mountains which bound it on the east and west. Those on the west are the highest of all the mountains in Palestine, and it is among them that the desert is to be seen where our Saviour fasted forty days; and one of its highest peaks, overlooking a great part of the Holy Land, was the Mountain of Temptation. There is a small chapel on its summit, and we would have ascended to it had not the excessive heat of the weather prevented us.

We replenished our water bottles (bags) at the fountain

*The "New World" in Turkish.

of Elisha, as we were warned that we should find no more until afternoon. At this spot we left all signs of cultivation; the plain was afterward one entire desert during the whole day's ride of twenty-five miles. The soil was a compact gravel, or, as geologists call it, a "hard-pan," partially cov ered with a short dry grass, the result of the winter rains, which withers up the moment their influence is past. Not a single object or incident occurred during this most tedious and painful day of all my life. This was the first time since we left Beyrout that we had suffered any length of time for want of water. By nine o'clock the intense heat of the sun made the water in the leather bottles so warm that we could not drink it. Extreme thirst obliged us to use it merely to moisten our parched tongues. Our caravan was far behind us, and we could get no wine or lemon sirup; finally, the water all evaporated through the bottles, and left us to endure the most excruciating tortures. We now had to regret having left behind us at Beyrout our water casks made in Egypt for desert travelling.

During the morning the rays of the sun were reflected against us from the rocky sides of the mountain on our left ; and it seemed as if the heat proceeded from a fiery furnace. By noon the sun's rays were reverberated upon us from both mountains at once; and the arid soil beneath us sent up into our faces such an overpowering heat, that we were inclined to believe that the mythe of the vale of " Tophet" had its origin in this region of flame.

Our thermometers were packed up in our baggage, and with our caravan behind, or we should have ascertained the degree of heat: if it was so intolerable on the third day of June, how much more insupportable must it be in August!* We would have gone to the Jordan; but our guard

* Some time after the above was written, we had occasion to use our European passports, and found that the intense heat of the sun in Syria had entirely melted the large wax seals in such a manner that we could

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would not consent to it as the country thereabout was infested with prowling banditti, who hang about the outskirts of Turkish rule.

At one time we descried at a distance a copse of woods; and under the supposition that we there might find a pool of standing water, we urged our horses at a desperate rate towards it; but we were doomed to disappointment; for though the half-dried mud of the winter swamp indicated the late presence of water, none was now to be found, even for our suffering animals.

Had we felt any desire to eat, we could not have done it for want of drink; we therefore pushed forward at a rapid rate towards a strip of verdant groves, which we descried many miles in advance of us, reaching from the mountains to the Jordan, indicating that a stream of water flowed through them.

The gentlemen, ever prepared for the most desperate cases of accident or need, as they are always provident in matters of ordinary necessity and comfort (to say nothing of the supplies of luxuries which they, at much cost and great inconvenience, carry with them, for my especial use, in these regions of privation), are at all times provided with a small portable flask of highly concentrated spirit, to use in case of accident; and this, in more than one unfortunate case, has proved of greater service than all the drugs in our wellstored pharmacopoeia. Recourse was had to this in order to sustain nature, which was on the point of giving way under the weight of our unexpected misfortune.

When we arrived near to the verdant border of the stream, which we could descry among the trees and shrubs, our guide directed us to turn short to the west, saying that we could not approach the water at that place, owing to the

not open the leaves without tearing them. These passport books had been in our portmanteaux, which were covered with canvass.

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swampy nature of the shores; but that a mile farther up we would find a spring. This was too tantalizing. We rode at least two miles, when the villanous Turk made a halt to parley with a Bedouin sheik, who, he said, was to take upon him the farther escort of our caravan, as his party were not allowed to proceed beyond this point. This fellow, like the camel, had not felt the want of water, and forgot our sufferings. We made our wants known to the sheik, who conducted us to the spring, half a mile back on the track we had just come over. We here refreshed our.

selves and partook of a slight repast.

Another and a more important disappointment here awaited us, which entirely frustrated some of our longcherished plans.

When we found that we were obliged to change conduct. ors, we began to explain to the sheik the route we desired to pursue from that point. We intended to cross the Jordan at that place, and visit the ruins of Geraza; thence to proceed through the Hauran, the Decapolis and Bashan, to the point where we now are, and thence to Damascus.

He informed us that he had the same day received orders from the governor of Nablous (Sychem) not to permit any travellers to pass up the valley of the Jordan beyond his en. campment, much less to cross it; for during many months past troops of banditti had been numerous along the Jordan, and had lately become so daring as to cross the river, and make incursions among the western mountains, plundering everything in their way. They had within a day or two attacked and carried off a Turkish family, on their way from Tiberias to Jerusalem by the valley of the Jordan. We were previously aware that the country east of the Jordan was in a very unsettled state, owing to the wandering tribes of wild Bedouins being urged to acts of outlawry by many individuals, who had been rendered desperate by the tyranny and cruelty of Ibrahim Pacha, from whose fangs

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they had escaped with the loss of all they possessed except

life.

There was no fiction in what the sheik had told us, as we afterward learned from the governor of Nablous. Al. though it was with much regret that we were obliged to submit to circumstances, and give up this part of our intended route which I have described to you, yet I believe, if we could have procured a guide, the gentlemen would have bribed the sheik to let us pass, and would have taken "the responsibility" of our own personal safety, even at the risk of losing such of our effects as we should have taken by that route (our valuables we could have sent round with a servant and guard by another road).

Prudence, however, guided our counsels, and we deter. mind to abandon Geraza and the Hauran, and take the more secure route west of the mountains and the Sea of Galilee.

Our caravan arrived, and we directed our tent to be pitched and dinner prepared. As we were now so unexpected. ly to leave the valley of the Jordan, we could not certainly entertain the idea of leaving it for ever without once having seen the river. We communicated this to the sheik, with our desire that he would accompany us thither, in order to gratify our curiosity. He would not for a moment enter. tain the idea of risking himself near the river, nor would he permit any of his tribe to accompany us. To come to Pal. estine and not to wash in the Jordan, would leave a stain upon our reminiscences of the Holy Land, which all the waters of Abana and Pharpar could not afterward wash away. To go to the river we were resolved, coute qu'il coute; so we requested the loan of fresh horses, determined to go without any escort. This the sheik could not refuse us, especially when the gentlemen flourished about his head some golden weapons.

We were soon mounted on some of the fleetest Arabians belonging to the tribe, and were all doubly armed, under the