date palms, within a mile north of the town! The distance
covered that day was 25 miles.

The 13th Brigade, meantime, had captured Acre[28] on the north, after only
slight opposition, yet it had effected, within a few hours, the feat which
Napoleon had entirely failed to accomplish after a siege of 60 days!
Incidentally, it may be mentioned, that heaps of his cannon-balls were
found at Haifa.

The next morning (24th), our men and horses bathed in the sea! A short
distance out, underwater, it was found that barbed wire had been fixed.
This the Turks had evidently placed in position with the object of
preventing a landing _from the sea_. These entanglements, however, in no
way impeded the bathing as they could easily be seen in the clear water.
Our troops were also allowed to visit the town, which was found to be very
interesting; there being many modern houses, it was, in several respects,
superior to any town we had previously visited in the interior. It is not
too much to say that many of the inhabitants were delighted to see the
British. They even said that they had expected us the previous year!

FOOTNOTES:

[25] _Mount Carmel extends from the sea coast at Haifa, inland 15
miles, in a south-easterly direction, thus forming a separating ridge
between the Plains of Sharon and Esdraelon. Its height is about 500
feet at the sea, and 1,800 feet at its inland extremity. The mountain
has always been associated with the name of the Prophet Elijah. It was
here that he was said to have sought shelter when Ahab was seeking his
life. A monastery stands over what is thought was the spot, and was
used as a hospital for the wounded when Napoleon was besieging Acre.
After his withdrawal it was destroyed by the Turks and afterwards
re-built through the energy of a monk who travelled and begged for 14
years to obtain funds for the present building. The Biblical references
to the mountain are: Josh. xix, 26; Deut. xiv, 5; I Kings iv, 23,
xviii, 13; Isa. xxxv, 2, lv, 12, xxxiii, 9; Amos i, 2; Song of Solomon
vii, 5; Micah vii, 14._

[26] _See Judges iv, 13, and v, 21._

[27] _Haifa is notorious on account of its associations with Mount
Carmel. The Latin Carmelites reached Haifa in A.D. 1170 and St. Simon
Stock, from Kent, was their general in A.D. 1245. They were massacred
by the Egyptians in 1291 but regained power in the middle of the
Sixteenth