trees, such as tamarisk, willows, oleanders, &c. In the covert of these trees, lions and other wild beasts hide themselves, and upon an inundation of the river are forced to make their escape. To this the prophet seems to allude in these words, "He shall come like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan." Jer. xlix, 19.

16. This river runs, from its source to its mouth, about one hundred miles, and is generally about eighty-two feet wide and nine or ten feet deep. The remaining rivers and brooks are small, many of them drying up during the

summer.

17. The principal lakes are, the Gennesareth, and the Asphaltites, or Dead Sea. The former, called also the Sea of Galilee, and the Sea of Tiberias, is situated in the north-western part of Palestine, in the province of Galilee. It is a deep, oval basin, surrounded upon all sides by high mountains, except where the Jordan passes through from north to south.

18. It is from twelve to fifteen miles long, and about six broad; its water is very limpid and sweet, and it abounds in a great variety of fish, formerly giving occupation and sustenance to the inhabitants of Capernaum, Tiberias, and the other cities upon its shore. The soil around is exceedingly fruitful, and the climate so favorable that nuts, palms, figs, and olive-trees, grow in rich luxuriance here, almost the whole year round.

19. In the days of Christ this district was thickly settled by skillful and industrious peo

ple, who, making good use of the natural advantages of the soil and the climate of this favored country, carried the improvement of their lands to the highest degree of perfection. Now, a thin, scattered, ignorant, and indolent population, scarcely obtain a livelihood.

20. This country and this sea were greatly honored with the presence, preaching, and miracles of the Saviour. He selected Capernaum, upon the margin of this lake, as his ordinary place of residence. From the fishermen upon this lake he called his first disciples and apostles. The dense population that filled the ships upon the sea, and lived in the surrounding towns and cities, he often addressed as he stood upon the shore, or sat in Peter's ship.

21. The sea being hemmed in on all sides by lofty heights, was preserved from the effects of long-continued storms; but was very subject to sudden and severe gusts of wind, which came rushing like a tornado down the sides of the mountain. One of these tempests called forth an astonishing display of our Lord's power, when he rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.

22. Upon this sea, in the night, he walked to his terrified disciples, whose fear ended in joy as they discovered their Master. Upon the shore of this sea he also exhibited himself to his disciples, just before his resurrection.

23. The whole scene has now changed. Not a ship (and but one or two boats) disturbs the silence of the waters; the cities that lined

the shores are entirely gone, or in ruins, and the busy population has also passed away :all is gloomy and deathly, where before all was beautiful and full of life.

CHAPTER III.

LAKES AND MOUNTAINS OF PALESTINE.

1. LAKE Asphaltites, commonly called the Dead Sea, and anciently styled the "Sea of the Plain," from its situation in the hollow, or plain of the Jordan, is a large sheet of water, about fifty miles long and from ten to twelve wide. Its dark, sluggish waters, roll over the formerly fruitful vale where once stood Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain a valley so rich and fruitful that it was styled the "garden of the Lord." It was changed into its present desolate appearance, when "the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven, and overthrew the cities and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Gen. xix, 24, 25.

2. The country around is barren and uninviting; the shore of the sea is incrusted with salt, and the waters are exceedingly bitter, producing an unpleasant prickling sensation upon the skin. The waters of the sea are so buoyant as to make it almost impossible for a person to sink beneath the surface-they easily

float one as he lays upon his back. An oppressive silence settles over the dreary scene; no boat ever disturbs its heavy bosom, and not a fish swims in its waters. It is a mistake, however, that no bird can fly above it, on account of its unhealthy exhalations; neither are the walls of cities seen beneath its waves, nor is the salt statue of Lot's wife now preserved : but the dark, silent, fœtid sea, still rolls its heavy waters through the vale, an everlasting monument of God's abhorrence of sin.

3. "The appearance of the lake," says Dr. Robinson, "is such as might naturally be expected from the character of its waters, and of the region round about. It lies in a deep caldron, surrounded by lofty cliffs of naked limestone rock, and exposed seven or eight months each year to the unclouded beams of a burning sun. Nothing, therefore, but sterility and deathlike solitude can be looked for upon its shores, and nothing else is found."

4. This vast lake, receiving in addition to the Jordan several other streams, has no outlet ; hence it was long supposed that it discharged its waters by subterranean channels into the Red Sea. Later investigations have proved the impossibility of this, and attribute its regu lar exhaustion to evaporation, which, under the burning sun, in so exposed a situation, must be sufficient to meet the amount of surplus water poured in by the rivers.

5. One of the most prominent features of Palestine is its mountains Whether you ap

proach from the desert or the sea, one lofty chain of heights is observed, branching out in different directions-some of the detached tops buried in the clouds-running from north to south across the whole land.

6. The difference between this land and Egypt, with its low plains, bordered by a sandy desert, from whence the Israelites were brought, under the direction of Moses, is thus beautifully expressed by him in his address to the people: “For the land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs: but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." Deut. xi, 11.

7. His land being flat, and seldom refreshed by a single shower, the sole dependence of the Egyptian for water is upon his only river, the Nile, which annually overflows the low, plain land, forming its banks. To receive as much benefit as possible from this stream, canals and sluices are cut, at the expense of much labor, through their lands, and the waters of the river, at its overflow, are retained in cisterns, or raised by machinery moved by buffaloes, or by men, and being received into tanks, are distributed over the plantation in small streams, guided by the mattock or the foot.

8. Not so the promised land: its fruitful soil was watered by the rains of heaven, and