wild picturesque glens, and is still the home of a numerous and industrious population.

Such are the dimensions, the outlines, and the main physical features of Western Palestine. We now cross over to take a similar survey of

EASTERN PALESTINE.

WE take our starting point from ANTI-LEBANON, the eastern of the two mountain ranges coming down from the north, mentioned at the beginning of this description. This is generally somewhat inferior in height to Lebanon, and from which it is divided by the fine and fertile valley of Cole-Syria, the Tetrarchate of Abilene. This chain attains its greatest altitude in the majestic Hermon, whose summit stands 9800 feet above the level of the sea. 66 While Lebanon is wooded or clothed with verdure to within one thousand feet of its summit, Hermon and its cluster of satellites are for the most part bare, excepting in the thin threads of verdure which mark the course of the streams which drain them, and the forest does not climb more than a few hundred feet up the mountain side." It is, however, a noble dome; from its top one can look down upon the whole Land of Palestine, almost as upon an extended map. On the other hand, the snowy crown of this mountain is clearly visible from the Plain of Phenicia, from Bashan, from Judea, and even from the bed of the Dead Sea. And whencesoever its icy crest is seen, in summer, when the firmament around it seems to be on fire, it presents an object of indescribable grandeur.

To the east and southeast of Hermon extends the rugged region of Trachonitis, which is unmarked by any special elevations in the form of hills, but is furrowed by innumerable and fantastic ravines, apparently of volcanic origin. Its whole aspect is exceedingly dreary.

From Hermon southward the mountain range continues its course to the east of the Jordan, and parallel to it, rising successively to the historic heights of Ajlun, Gilead and Moab, which, with their intervening connections, bound, like a solid purple wall, the whole eastern horizon. The pine-clad summit of Ajlun stands 6500 feet above the sea; that of Mount Gilead a little less. Of the Moab division of the range, Mount Nebo (of which Pisgah is a peak) forms the highest point, being 4600 feet. From Moab the chain continues southward, till it culminates in Mount Hor, whose elevation is a little over 5000 feet. From this point it declines in height, but preserves its continuity along the eastern side of the valley of the Arabah until it reaches the Elanitic Gulf.

Of this trans-Jordanic region, H. B. Tristram, who visited it a few years since, gives the following account: "Although the mountain range is quite as high as the hills of Western Palestine, it is not so broken up. Only four streams of any size furrow it: the Yarmuk, the Jabbok, the Callirhoe, and the Arnon. To the east the hills gently melt away into the immense red plain which reaches the Hauran or Bashan, the farthest possession of Manasseh, after the hills of which, the Assyrian Desert begins. In the north we find an open plain eastward, extending to the Lejah (Trachonitis), and

further Bashan, and westward the range is dotted with noble oaks, rather park-like than in the form of dense forest, deciduous in the lower grounds, and evergreen on the higher ranges. Among these roam the flocks and herds of the wandering Bedouin.

"Next, in Gilead, we come to a more densely-wooded region, a true forest in places, the tops of the higher range covered with noble pines; then a zone of evergreen oaks, with arbutus, myrtle, and other shrubs intermixed; lower down, the deciduous oak is the predominant tree, mixed with wild olive, and many other semi-tropical trees, which, in their turn, yield, as we descend into the Jordan valley, to the jujube, the oleaster, and the palm. But in all these forests are open glades and dells, where corn is grown or olives planted, and the streams are fringed with oleander. Such must have been the appearance of the neighborhood of Shechem and Bethel in the days of the patriarchs.

"Farther south, the regions of Ammon and Moab are, for the most part, without forest, the trees being principally terebinth, scattered here and there over a region of fine turf, well watered, and still covered with flocks, till we reach the eastern corn-plains of the Belka, now the richest district of Syria. This country, almost in its primitive state, is a picture of what southern Judea and the neighborhood of Beersheba once were, before the denudation of the forests had checked the annual rain-fall. There is a beauty in Gilead, a richness in Moab, and a grandeur in Bashan, which make it hard to believe that only the narrow cleft of the Jordan valley

separates them from the gray hills and naked rocks of Western Palestine."

VALLEY OF THE JORDAN.

BETWEEN the two parallel ranges of mountains now described, or between East and West Palestine, flows the River Jordan, whose channel forms one of the most remarkable features, not only of this country, but of the whole face of the globe. Great interest has been felt from remote antiquity in regard to the source of this river, and this honor has been claimed for three different streams-the Great Jordan, the Lesser Jordan, and the Hasbany; all of these rise in the slopes or rocky sides of Anti-Lebanon, and all meet and mingle their waters in Lake Merom, now Lake Huleh. The Greater Jordan has its origin in a copious fountain that gushes out of a rock behind the modern town of Banias, and its entire length from thence to the lake does not exceed twelve miles. The Lesser Jordan also has its beginning in a spring, which forms a magnificent basin of three hundred feet in diameter, entirely surrounded by shapeless basaltic stones; in the midst of this capacious bowl the water boils and bubbles up in great abundance, sending forth a full-grown stream, thirty feet wide and two feet deep; its whole length, however, is only some five or six miles; it is in fact but a branch of the Greater Jordan. Far up in the mountains, near the village of Hasbeiyah, another beautiful fountain bursts out at the foot of a rocky precipice, in a most romantic and delightful spot, and forms at once the perennial stream of the Hasbany. The

course of this river lies west of the other two; it is much longer than either of them, the distance from its source to the lake being twenty-five miles. Hence the claim of the Hasbany to be the true parent of the sacred river of Palestine rests upon its greater length, whilst that of the Lesser Jordan is based upon its larger volume of water, and of the Greater Jordan on its having received the title and retained the honor from remotest antiquity.

Lake Huleh, in which the waters of these contending streams are collected, is situated in a marshy region, not far from Cæsarea-Philippi. Its length, as lately measured by Lieutenant S. Anderson, R. E., is about four miles, and its width three miles. Its dimensions at certain seasons are considerably larger. Its surface stands nearly on a level with that of the Mediterranean.

Out of this lake, the Jordan passes through a narrow channel between precipitous banks; and, true to the signification of its name, "The Descender," it descends in almost continuous rapids for some eight miles; and after a gentler flow of some three miles more, enters into another lake-the beautiful Sea of Galilee. Than this lake, excepting the Holy City, there is no place in Palestine invested with deeper or more sacred interest to the Christian; everything connected with it, therefore, is carefully and seriously inquired into.

This sea, whose bosom and environments were the scene of most of the Saviour's miracles and teachings, has been pictured in the minds of most readers of the Gospel, but often quite erroneously. In shape, it is somewhat like a pear, with the broad end north. Its