im to continue the journey with
cavalry upon the plain to Caesarea, about three hours farther, (Acts
xxiii. 23, and 31, 32.)

It seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that this is the true site of
Antipatris; and as for Josephus calling that neighbourhood "the plain of
Cuf'r Saba," that must be for the same reason as another part of the same
vast extent was called the Plain of Sharon,--or as it is now very much
the custom for modern travellers to call the whole Philistine plain by
that name.

As for the statement that a river encompassed the city itself; I imagine
that the town was not upon the elevated mound,--this was probably
occupied by military works and a temple,--but upon the level of the
water, among the serpentine separate streams, which soon combine into one
river, the Aujeh, with its water-mills, and which was navigable for some
distance inland to the north of Jaffa. In the course of ages some of
these streams may have somewhat changed their direction. The mound has
still a dry trench around it, which must have anciently had its current
of water through it.

It cannot be that the deep trench dug by Alexander from Antipatris to the
sea (Antiq. xiii. 15, I, Whiston) can have begun at this village of Cuf'r
Saba, where no water rises, and which is far away from the hills in an
open plain. Although the words are distinctly, "from Capharzaba," the
trench must have originated at the river head, _i.e._, Antipatris, where
there was a fortified castle, and passed round the nearest town, viz.,
that of Cuf'r Saba.

I should observe, that not only Herod did well in selecting this spot for
a castle, because of its situation on the verge of the mountains,
commanding the road from Jerusalem to either Caesarea or Joppa; but
because it lies also upon the direct caravan track between Damascus and
Egypt, nearly at right angles with the other road.

The ruined Saracenic khan which now stands on the foundations of the
Roman castle, is of large size, and has a broken mosque in the centre of
the enclosure.

We rested and breakfasted, from our own resources, (without taxing the
Arab hospitality of Shaikh Sadek's family at Mejdal,) at the springs of
the Aujeh,--the water bubbling up warm from the ground, among stones,
with aquatic birds flying over us, and the morning breeze sighing among
the gigantic reeds and the willows.

We engaged a guide for what seemed likely to be a short day's journey to
_Ras Kerker_, the _curs