s banks in the interior.

The crevasse through which it issues is wild and romantic in the extreme.
High cliffs of basalt are the confines of the water. This, on reaching
the plain, is parted with several streams, (to compare great things with
small,) in the fashion of the Nile or the Ganges; which the Jordan is
not, either at its entrance into this lake or its entrance into the Dead
Sea.

All the streams are fringed with oleander; and, in the extreme heat of
the day, the horses enjoyed not only their drinking, but their wading
through the rolling water.

This was the boundary between Bashan and Gilead, through the latter of
which we had hitherto been travelling, and gave name to the great battle
A.D. 637, where the victory obtained by the fierce _Khalid_ and the mild
_Abu Obeidah_ decided the fate of Palestine, and opened the way of the
Moslems to Jerusalem.

Over an extent of four or five miles, before reaching the Jordan, a rich
harvest of wheat was being reaped upon the plain. We first attempted to
cross at _Samakh_, but finding it impossible at that season, had to turn
back to the ford at the broken bridge, which the natives call the 'mother
of arches,' (_Umm el Kanater_;) and even there the water was still deep.

Corn-fields and flocks of sheep in every direction; but all the shepherds
carrying firearms. We most of us lay down on our breasts to drink
greedily once more from the dear old river; and then we crossed the
Jordan into the land of Canaan, going on to Tiberias, and passing on the
way some Franciscan monks. What a change of associations from those of
the country we had traversed exclusively for the last nine days!

How absurd the sudden and unexpected contrast from old 'Abdu'l 'Azeez and
the brilliant young 'Ali Deab in the freedom of the desert, to the cowl
and the convent of the monks--from the grand savage language of the
Ishmaelite to the mellifluous Italian.

At the hot baths of the lake we found our tents already pitched, and my
old friend the missionary,--Thomson, from Bayroot,--who had been
travelling on the eastern side of the lake, (a territory so little
known,) and, as he and I believed, had discovered the true Gadara. We
compared notes about affairs of the Arabs at the time.

Several of the juvenile travellers set themselves to swimming before
dinner at sunset, the huge hills at the back casting long shadows across
the lake.

We all had tea together, as we were to separate to our