welkin like guardians of the pass, a single peering light from the cell of some drowsy monk was all that indicated a human habitation, and the long-drawn shadows that fell across the Kedron completed the dismal solitude of the place. This little adventure of ours was attended with some danger, although we were ignorant of it at the time. Hyenas and jackals are said to be plentiful in those ravines, and forage for prey at night; and the prowling Bedouin is as constantly on the watch for another opportunity of sharing with the monks the hoarded wealth of the convent. On returning to our tents we found our guard "lying on their arms," ready for action in case of an attack, some of our muleteers fast asleep on the ground, and others earnestly smoking the gurgling Turkish pipe, which they kept going among them the whole night. After journalising the incidents of the day, Mr. B. conducted our social worship, and from this romantic spot of Judah's ancient inheritance our united prayers ascended on high to Judah's God. Much too soon for our wearied eyes and limbs the rays of the morning sun shot through our frail walls. But there was no choice. A hasty toilet and breakfast, and into the saddle, is the rule for travellers in the Holy Land. By five o'clock Moses and his muleteers were shouting to each other. Ali-ass, our groom-in-waiting, called to us something in Arabic, which we interpreted to mean, "get up!" Breakfast was on the table at six, and while we were earnestly disposing of the productions of our excellent cook, the tents were struck, baggage packed, and the animals loaded. This was an every-morning performance. It was Hassan's special business, and the shouting, howling, and murderous-like gestures of the Arabs in going about it, which meant nothing but sound, were extremely amusing.

On a neighbouring height an English party, whom we did not recognise at the time, were similarly occupied, but in less favourable circumstances. They had chosen the higher ground for their encampment, and their position looked much more pleasant than our's, in the shady hollow, the previous evening, when we saw them basking in the sun. But morning told a different tale. A smart breeze had sprung up during the night and overturned their tents, and from this circumstance they got the morning sun carlier than they desired. They were most awkwardly situated, but I must own that our sympathy and gravity were irresistibly overcome by a strong sense of the ludicrous. As they turned out to be the party who had accompanied us to the Mosque of Omar, we were friends at once, and travelled together for the two following days.

Exactly at seven o'clock we were in the saddle. By this hour the sun was over the mountains of Gilead, his rays pricking like needles as an earnest of his noon-day strength. For a mile or more we had to

retrace our steps of the previous day, and, consequently, again skirted the fearful gorge of Mar Sâba. This was unavoidable, in order to reach the deep rugged bed of the Kedron, which for some distance formed our path. At the first rideable spot we ascended its eastern bank, aud shaped a south eastern direction as near as rocky water courses and perpendicular cliffs would permit. Some of the latter were two to three hundred feet high, and looked as if they had been torn asunder by an earthquake. For several hours we had to struggle through this wild country-climbing precipices, traversing their time-polished ridges, and then descending their farther side till we reached the bottom of another gorge. The horsemanship required in such places put both muscle and brain to the test. None but Arab horses durst look at them. How we got along without a single mishap was indeed marvellous. Our guard here displayed their prowess to perfection, and seemed to court the presence of an enemy. They were five in number, one to each of the party, tall, stout fellows, and formidable enough if met as foes. Their uniform consisted of a loose shirt and knickerbokers in one piece, a broad woollen scarf of various colours around the shoulders, forming a sort of blouse, and a cotton scull-cap, surmounted by a huge turban of red and yellow. Their other extremities, below mahogany coloured legs, were finished off with boots of Turkish make. For "arms" cach man had a seven feet musket, heavily hooped with brass-a singularly shabby looking article, a short cutlass hung in a sword-belt, a pouch and powder horn, in which I had doubts whether there were an ounce of lead or powder. Anything more unsoldierlike could scarcely be imagined. Nevertheless it was interesting to watch their antics and movements. Keeping well in advance, they ascended the most formidable heights with remarkable agility. On reaching a hill top they shouted, howled, and cut all imaginable capers-manoeuvring with their guns, cowering, and looking into the distance, as if earnestly watching an enemy, and then down the other side they would tumble far out of our sight.

From the character of the country it was difficult to know whether, on the whole, we had ascended or descended from Mar Sâba. These incessant ups and downs and windings were extremely perplexing, especially as the view was mostly limited to the hill or ravine immediately before us. On attaining the south-east point of this terrible wilderness, our doubts on this score were suddenly removed by the tremendous depth that lay beyond. Like the sudden "shift" in a panorama, a new world here started into view, and we reined up for a little to enjoy the spectacle. About two miles to the left, on the summit of a conical mountain, was Neby Mûsa, a Moslem wely, where tradition has buried Moses, and whose shrine thousands of pilgrims visit every year. Our dragoman pointed it out, with evident pride, and it was vain

B

to attempt to convince him that his illustrious ancestor was buried on the other side Jordan, and that no man knows his grave. Farther east we had a glimpse of the valley of the Jordan, and beyond it the once fertile hills of Bashan and Gilead. Before us opened up the Ghor, or basin of the Dead Sea, in which you might entomb a mountain; on the south the mountains of Edom ran back in many a rocky fold to Arabia Petrea; and on the north of these, rose abruptly from the valley like a huge wall the still more interesting mountains of Moab; while below us spread out for miles the plains of Jericho-the city of palm trees. We anxiously looked for some peak that might correspond to Pisgah, whence Israel's leader obtained his view of "that good land," but in vain. "Pisgah is there," as has been well remarked, "and at its base the great plain where the Israelites encamped, but from the brief and general account given in Scripture it is impossible on this side Jordan to distinguish one place from another."

So,

The waters of the Dead Sea were now full in view, and the chief object of attraction. As the mountain summit on which we stood seemed to touch the water, and the intense violet haze that hung on its surface within a stone's throw, we fancied we were close to the margin of that mysterious lake. But the atmosphere was strongly delusive. A difficult and dangerous ride of several miles, under a sun as hot as that of Central India, awaited us in the space between. The attempt to ride down that mountain face, on which not even a goat's tract was to be found, looked to me very like madness. But there was no choice. allowing the horses to find a way for themselves, which is always the safest course in such circumstances, the riders held on as they best could. On reaching the bottom, our muletcers and guard left us and struck away to the east; while our course lay directly to the south. For some distance here we rode through what might be called an Indian jungle-tall reeds and canes and tangled thorn; but we were glad of anything approaching to a shade, or plain. On emerging from this thicket, an easy canter across a belt of dried mud and sand brought us to the pebbly shore of the Dead Sea.

Without exception the Dead Sea is the most remarkable body of water in the world. Its position has been scientifically determined by various travellers and explorers in modern times, all of whom agrce, that, with slight variations according to the particular season of the year, its surface lies 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterrancan Sea. From its immediate contiguity to the valley of the Jordan on the north, and its corresponding position to the Gulf of Akaba the eastern branch of the Red Sea on the south, it has been supposed by some that the Jordan had at one period flowed into the Red Sea. If this supposition were correct, it necessarily follows that by some violent depression

of the valley by earthquakes, or otherwise, the basin of the Dead Sea had been formed and the farther progress of the Jordan interrupted. As it now lies, it measures forty miles in length and eight and one half miles at its greatest breadth, and at some places a depth has been found of 2,448 feet below the level of the Mediterraneau. Encompassed chiefly by bare white cliffs, a bituminous shore, and exposed to the powerful rays of a Syrian sun, the Dead Sea becomes a perfect caldron in summer. The scorching heat thus compressed into the valley produces a scene of unmitigated sterility and of dismal solitude. And excepting rare spots where a breath of wind finds its way through a mountain gully over the channel of a winter stream or brakish spring, creating a little wilderness of reeds, tamarisk, thorn, and it may be a solitary oleander, vegetation is not to be seen. The water is equally destitute of animal life; and unless it be some of the very lowest organisations, and even that is doubted, no living creature is to be found in it. At a short distance from the shore I picked up a shell, fancying I had made a discovery, but on examination it turned out to be a land, not a water, production. Whatever may be asserted of certain spots on its eastern shores, on the western side, as witnessed by us, a death-stillness reigned. "Not a blade of grass, or weed, relieved the monotony of the sandy waste, no fin disturbed the deep which it enclosed, not even a fly hummed through the forbidden air." There were indeed the remains of vegetable life, but the remains only. In some ancient deluge trees had been borne down by the Jordan to the sea, and in a fitful mood that gulph of death had vomited them forth upon the dry land, for there they lay like grotesque skeletons on a forlorn shore. However paradoxical it may seem, after this description, the Dead Sea, as a body of water, is majestic and beautiful. Under a mid-day sun, as we saw it, it shone like an ocean of molten silver tinged with blue, and, having a gentle ripple on its surface, it presented one of those sights from which it is difficult to turn away.

The history of the Dead Sea is as wonderful as the composition of its water, or the locality in which it lies. Nearly four thousand years ago Abraham and Lot dwelt at Bethel, north of Jerusalem. The place became too "strait" for their numerous herds, and strife ensued between their herdsmen. Abraham, with characteristic affection and generosity, said to his nephew, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." From the heights of Bethel Lot took a survey of the country, chose him "all the plain of Jordan" because it was well watered, even as the garden of the Lord," resolved to remove his dwelling

towards Sodom, and ultimately took up his residence within that wicked city. Soon after this an important epoch occurs in the physical history of the "Vale of Siddim." The men of Sodom were sinners exceedingly before the Lord, and the Lord determined to destroy that city, with the other cities of the plain, by a direct judgment from heaven. Abraham, who by this time had removed to the vale of Mamre, a few miles to the westward, was Divinely informed of their terrible doom. On the morning following the departure of his angelic visitors, the Patriarch rose at an early hour, and, with quivering frame and anxious eye, "looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." We speculate not on the manner in which this awful expression of Divine displeasure was poured out. Suffice it to say that those cities were overthrown, their entire inhabitants, Lot, his wife, and two daughters excepted, perishing in the catastrophe, and their sites converted into a lake of salt and death as a perpetual memorial of their wickedness and doom.

The chief mystery of the Dead Sea, in a physical point of view, is the fact that, while continually receiving a large influx of water from the Jordan on the north, and from lesser streams on the cast, without any visible outlet, there is no increase either in its depth or extent of surface. Even the extraordinary evaporation that must arise from its surface from the nature of the strata below and around, and the extreme heat of the summer's sun, will scarcely account for this singular phenomenon. Some idea of the character of the Dead Sea water, arising from this evaporation, may be formed from its peculiar properties. The saline particles of the ocean amount to only four per cent, while the Dead Sea water contains twenty-six and one-fourth per cent. The result of this is, an intense saltness of taste, and a density which renders it impossible for the human body to sink in it. Notwithstanding the awe-inspiring history and character of the place, which the most prosaic mind could scarcely resist, the temptation to enjoy a bathe in the pellucid and sparkling element was more powerful for the moment. There being no time for reflection, and at the risk of seeing our garments marching off on the shoulders of an Arab, we instantly stripped and plunged into the refreshing and buoyant wave. Till then I had some lurking doubts of the latter property, but found it to be a wonderful reality. At the first attempt, I acquired the art of swimming, and lay upon the surface of the water with the greatest case. The gentleman of our English party was determined on complete immersion, but being rather portly, as noticed on a previous occasion, the attempt was extremely amusing. When his head was down, his heels were in the air, and vice versa. No doubt it is possible for a person to get bodily