length. The lettering is in Greek. He thinks it must tell of hidden
treasure. And so it does to me, but not of the kind for which he is
looking. The inscription is partially effaced, but I see enough to
conclude that it was likely at one time the pedestal of a statue.

I next proceed to take a further general view of this celebrated
locality--celebrated, for here are the most noted ruins east of the
Jordan. My first observation is that the present inhabitants,
Circassians, are rapidly despoiling the treasures of antiquity found
here. They take the rocks and pillars of temples that were once the
admiration of a great region and pile them roughly together, forming a
small enclosure; then, in many instances, they place poles and brush
across the top, throw ground on the brush,--and their houses are ready
for occupancy. There is no regularity whatever in the plan of the
alleys, or lanes, of the present village. We mount our horses for a
further study of these interesting ruins.

Gerasa was one of the chief cities of the Decapolis, (the other nine
were Damascus, Hippos, Scythopolis, Dion, Pella, Kanatha, Raphana,
Gadara, and Philadelphia,) and was situated twenty miles east of the
Jordan on one of the northern tributaries of the Jabbok, and within
five miles of the place where the famous "Moabite Stone" was found.
Tristam considers it to-day as "PROBABLY THE MOST PERFECT ROMAN CITY
LEFT ABOVE GROUND." The present ruins seem to date back to the second
century of the Christian era. A Christian bishop from Gerasa attended
the Council of Seleucia in 359 A.D., and another that of Chalcedon in
451 A.D. In the thirteenth century this city was in ruins. It was then
for five centuries lost to the eyes of the civilized world. In the
beginning of the thirteenth century a German traveler visited it; the
magnificent ruins of the place amazed him. The same ruins to-day, or
some of them, strike the comparatively few visitors with awe at the
thought of the riches, the gayety, and the power that once reigned here
on the border of the desert.

The walls of the ancient city are plainly traceable, and formed an
enclosure about a mile square. Three of its gates are fairly well
preserved. On the south side of the city ruins, less than a half mile
distant, stands a triumphal arch forty feet high. Between this arch and
the city wall are the ruins of a great stone pool and of a circus. The
main street lies on the west side of the stream. It was pa