water, and they told us that rice here yields seventy-two bushels for each sown, a tolerably fair proportion for a crop.

Having broken camp, we began to ascend a ridge which divides the waters of Merom from the Sea of Galilee, marching through tall stems of aniseed six or seven feet high, and seeing nothing else worthy of remark until we at length reach the crest of the ridge, when the lake burst upon our view, and all the scenery which renders its shores and its vicinity so intensely interesting. The Sea of Galilee, also called the Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake of Tiberias, now Bahr Tubariyeh, is glittering in the noonday sun; its western shore, on which are situated most of the places of interest, seems to make a curve outward, and nearly its entire surface, thirteen miles long by six wide, is beneath our eyes, Here beneath us are the sites of Capernaum, of Chorazin, of Bethsaida; farther on is Magdala and the plain of Gennesaret; still farther the yet considerable town of Tiberias; and far away in the misty distance we may almost descry the place where Jordan again flows out of it, and makes its brief passage to the Dead Sea, near the country of the Gadarenes. On either side are lofty hills-on the east the mountains of Bashan; on the west the hills of Galilee, over which our future journeyings will lie. The round summit of Mount Tabor peeps over the top of these; and nearer, a curious double-topped, saddle-shaped hill is pointed out, on which tradition asserts that our Saviour delivered the "Sermon on the Mount."

Here then we stand and gaze, and meditate upon the wonderful panorama spread before us; wonderful, not so much on account of the intrinsic beauty or picturesqueness of the landscape, although it is certainly not without beauty, but on account of its being the scene of the latter part of our Lord's life on earth. Here beneath us He dwelt during the greater part of His ministry. On the waters at our feet He sailed in ships with His fisher-disciples; taught the people from the ship; stilled the storm; filled the nets with a miraculous draught. There, on the hills above, He fed the multitude, and discoursed to them those wondrous precepts of a morality, purer than the world had ever before known.

But although the prospect from a distance, and at first sight, is so striking and inspiring, we feel after a time anxious to see more nearly the spots rendered sacred by the holy feet, and we begin our descent with the scene continually in full view, though somewhat varying as we advance. Our way lay through a rocky path (in

which we picked up a land-tortoise) until we arrived at Khan Yusuf, a building of no very ancient date, but which the Moslem affirms (wrongly) to be the site of the well into which Joseph was cast by his brethren. Its walls command a fine view, and it appears to be used as a sort of farmhouse and cow-yard by some Arabs. Here we halted to lunch, and here we examined the well into which Joseph was not let down.

Continuing our journey, we soon arrived near the shore of the lake, and were conducted by our dragoman to a large mound, beneath or beside which in all probability lay the ruins of Capernaum! Here then we were resting upon that ancient city of which it is related in Matt. iv. 13, "And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim." Time would not, on our arrival, permit of much more wandering or exploration that evening. Mounted on the Tell, our experienced guides pointed out all the places of interest in the neighbourhood, after which we descended to the ruins of Khan Minyeh, near the fountain of Ain-et-Tin, where we found the tents pitched in a very agreeable situation. Before sunset several of us had a delightful bath in the Sea of Galilee, the water being beautifully warm and the bottom sandy; and we amused ourselves during the remaining short interval before the essential dinner in gathering shells upon the beach, of which there were a great number among the small stones near the water-line. After dinner we wandered about near the camp. It was a brilliant starlight night; the bushes around were sparkling with numerous glow-worms, cicadas were singing their shrill songs in the trees all about us, the distant melancholy howl of the jackals could be heard from time to time in the distance, and the muleteers' wild Eastern song over their camp-fires. Some Turcomans from the north of this region had camped close by, but we sent them farther off; and having established our usual guard, we slept comfortably and safely upon the ruins of Capernaum.

It is only, however, by a comparison of many authorities, and a careful consideration of many circumstances, that geographers have been able to satisfy themselves that this is the site of Capernaum. It has been debatable land, and only recently has it been considered as settled. For although in the time of our Lord, Capernaum was a city of importance, and "exalted unto heaven," although it enjoyed the enviable distinction of being our Lord's "own city" (Matt. ix. 1), it is now as though it had not been. For they had rejected Him, and He

had pronounced against it those woes, which are at this day literally fulfilled in the desolate ruinous heap, which was once a great city: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee" (Matt. xi. 23, 24). For here He had spoken parables, had delivered discourses, besides the Sermon on the Mount, hard by; had worked miracles, had healed incurable sicknesses, had raised the dead to life. Here was passed the greater part of that life which was like no other life; here He had taught those words such as no other man had ever spoken. No other spot on earth had been so favoured, or had seen so much of the Divine work, had heard so much of the Divine speech-but "they repented not."

Several sites at short distances from one another have at different times been fixed upon as Capernaum; but so utter is the destruction of the place that a mere ruinous heap remains, wherever it may be. There is literally nothing but the general statement of Scripture to guide to the spot. The mound which marks its ruins is 300 feet high, and there are but few traces of buildings near the fountain and on the flat top of the mound. We must recollect that two other cities shared the denunciations against Capernaum. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!" These cities are equally ruined, and their sites are equally uncertain. All three, it appears, lay close together; and at 8 A.M., after arriving in this district, we were on horseback for the purpose of riding along the north shore of the lake in order to visit these ancient sites. A ride of little more than a couple of miles brought us to Et-Tabighah, believed to be the ancient Bethsaida, where now very little is left to show that a city ever existed. There was, however, another Bethsaida, the position of which we can see from here, on the opposite side of the lake, which was known as Bethsaida Julias, so called in honour of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and near which it is believed that the five thousand were miraculously fed with five loaves and two fishes. The Bethsaida whereon we were standing was the home of Peter, Andrew, Philip, James, and John, and is now an unrecognisable heap of ruins, amid bushes of thorny nubk and groves of oleanders. I observed also near here a thicket of Egyptian papyrus (Papyrus antiquorum), a plant which has now deserted the Egyptian Nile, and which I here noticed for the first and only time.

A ride of little more than half an hour brought us to the third city, Chorazin, now known as Tell Hum, where the ruins are more visible and suggestive. There are here, close to the shore, and overgrown with tall thistles and other plants, sculptured pillars and architraves, which evidently once formed part of some sumptuous building, it is said a synagogue. Dr. Robinson measured 105 feet along the northern wall, and 80 feet along the western; and the ornamentation is extremely elaborate, indicating a place of great importance. Here are seen peculiar double columns, with base and capitals cut from the same block of stone, and in fact this is the only one of the three sites which much repays an examination.

Having viewed the ruins at Tell Hum, we retraced our steps to Capernaum; the camp meantime had disappeared, and we followed it, proceeding along the coast southwards. We soon reached a small triangular plain covered with thickets of prickly shrubs-the plain of Gennesaret, which we crossed near the lake. In the open places amid these thickets we wound along, and being a little in advance, and out of sight of the rest of our party, I had ocular demonstration of the source of the howls heard last night, as a jackal, unobservant of me, ambled leisurely before me across an open space and disappeared in a thicket. There were, however, other indications of life. Kingfishers, apparently the same as our own species, were often seen; we encountered Bedouins, with flocks of goats, here and there, the animals standing on their hind-legs and nibbling the leaves of the nubk, which they could only thus reach, while camels stretched out their necks and ate the upper branches.

After an hour's ride we reached a miserable little village, the only one in these parts, which once were so fertile and now are so desolate. This was Mejdel, the ancient Magdala, the birthplace of that Mary of Magdala who is commonly known as Mary Magdalene. It is now but a small collection of wretched huts, but no degradation can erase its association with the woman to whom much was forgiven because she loved much. After passing Mejdel, we follow a rocky path on the side of the hill overhanging the lake; and here we meet with new faces which at once arrest our attention. These are the pale countenances of the Jews who reside at Tiberias, which we are now approaching, and who number about 800 souls in a population of about 2000. They are extremely poor and unhealthy-looking, and live in a quarter of their own in the centre of the town.

The morning had turned out showery, and when we at length

came near Tiberias it began to rain pretty sharply. At the north end of the town, and on a rising ground, are the somewhat extensive ruins of a castle, and into this we rode and took shelter for ourselves and steeds in some dilapidated vaulted chambers, where we were fain to eat our lunch. Meantime the weather cleared and became beautifully fine, and in due time we quitted our shelter and descended to the south side of the town, where we found our tents pitched not many yards from the borders of the lake, in a very pleasant situation. Having plenty of time before us this afternoon, we walked along the shores of the lake for about a mile and a half, admiring the numerous remains of the ancient city and suburbs, which appeared in the form of columns strewed along the beach, and now washed by the waters. In one place I observed a row of bases of columns just beneath the water, like the trunks of a submerged forest. These were in all probability the ruins of the structures erected by Herod Antipas, who founded the city of Tiberias about A.D. 16. In the time of our Lord it was in all the splendour of freshness and beauty, and after the destruction of Jerusalem it became the Jewish metropolis, and continued so for three hundred years. To this day it is a sacred place to the Jews, whose desire is to die and be buried here; a desire perhaps arising from the Rabbinical legend that the Messiah will one day emerge from the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and land at this city, in order to set up His throne on the top of the neighbouring hill to the north, upon which is conspicuously visible a small village called Safed. This place, situated upon the crest of a hill, is supposed to have suggested to our Lord, who could probably see it as He spoke, the idea of the "city set upon an hill which could not be hid” (Matt. v. 14).

At the extremity of our walk we came to some hot baths, supplied by four hot springs having a temperature of 144° F. These baths were well known to the ancients, and did not escape the observation of the philosophic old Pliny, and were also mentioned by Josephus. The water has a saline taste and sulphureous odour; and the baths are much frequented, as a cure for rheumatic affections, by the Arabs and Jews of the country round. The bath-house is a circular building, and on entering it we saw several persons disporting themselves in the steaming water, but it was scarcely inviting to us to join them. The presence of these hot springs, and the abundance of basaltic rock, show that we are in a volcanic region, and sufficiently account for the earthquakes to which it is subject; one of which, on