These tours to the East of the Jordan would require the special protection of the local sheikhs, and would involve costs for this protection varying in amount in proportion to the numbers of the parties. This would have to be arranged by special contract at the time, as no fixed charges can be satisfactorily arranged (p. 10).

ELEVENTH ITINERARY.

TOUR FROM DAMASCUS TO THE HAURAN.

Taking Damascus as the starting point of this extension to the Hauran, we will simply show the number of days required from that city, instead of repeating any of the routes leading to Damascus.

IST DAY.-From Damascus to Burâk in eight hours' ride via Nejha and the river Awaj.

2ND DAY.-From Burâk to Dâma via El Musmeih (Phaeno), Sh'aâra and Semah, seven and a-half hours.

3RD DAY.- From Dâma to Um ez Zeitûn via Deir el Dâma (ascend Tell 'Amârah to view the land of Bashan), eight hours' ride.

4TH DAY.-From Um ez Zeitûn to Shuhba via Bathanyeh (Bátanoa) and Shûka (Saccœa), seven and a-half hours.

5TH DAY.-From Shuhba to Hebrân via Suleim, Kunawât (Kenath) and Suweideh, seven hours.

6TH DAY.-From Hebrân to Sâleh via El Kufr and Sehweh, eight hours.

7TH DAY.-From Sâleh to Busrah via’Ormân (Philippopolis) and Sulkhad (Salcah), eight hours.

8TH DAY.-From Busrah to Der❜â by Ghusam and Adraha, seven and a-half hours.

9TH DAY.-From Der'â to Mujeidel via Mezarîb and Edhr'a (Edrei), seven hours.

10TH DAY.-From Mujeidel to Kesweh via Es Sunamein (Ære) and Denûn, seven hours.

IITH DAY.-From Kesweh to Damascus via Ashrafîjeh and El Kâdem, six hours.

To make this tour, a fortnight would have to be added to a Palestine tour which would include Damascus.

TOURS TO PALMYRA

can be made from Damascus in twelve days for the double journey. But Palmyra is under the power of rapacious sheikhs, and great care has to be observed in arranging for a tour to that city of grand ruins.

Palestine and Syria.

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.

SYRIA is that mountainous province of the Turkish Empire lying to the east of the Mediterranean Sea and including Palestine or the Holy Land.

The name Palestine (Heb. Pelesheth) to the ancient Hebrews only meant Philistia, and it was from their early acquaintance with this part of the country that the Greeks gave its designation to the whole land. At various epochs, the country has been called by various names.

The Land of Palestine, as in Joel iii. 4, Exod. xv. 14, Isa. xiv. 29, 31, always in the Bible means Philistia.

Canaan is the oldest name of the country, and owes its origin to the son of Ham, whose descendants settled in the land (Gen. ix. 18, x. 15-19).

The Land of Promise, used once in the New Testament, is a term which has become familiarized by writers on prophecy, etc.

The Land of Jehovah (Hosea ix. 3).

The Land of Israel first occurs in 1 Sam. xiii.

is most frequently used by Ezekiel.

19, and

Judæa, or Judah, originally meant the territory of Judah. After Solomon's death it meant the southern kingdom. When the northern kingdom went into captivity and did not return, Judæa became equivalent to the Jewish Nation, i.e., all Palestine. The Romans applied the term only to the southern province.

The Holy Land is now perhaps the most familiar name of this country. It occurs in Zechariah: "The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land" (ii. 12). It was a favourite term with the Jewish Rabbis, and almost superseded all other names of the country, when, during the Crusades, all Europe was fevered with excitement about the sites of Sacred History.

The Holy Land, or Palestine, is bounded on the north by the mountains of Lebanon, east and south by the Deserts which separate it from Arabia and Egypt, and west by the Mediterranean. Its length is about two hundred miles, its average breadth about sixty miles: its area twelve thousand square miles. The estimated population of Syria is 2,740,000.

Whilst occupying a very central position, Palestine is thus a remarkably isolated country. The only direct communication with what the Rabbis called "the land out of Israel," was with Syria to the north, and this only by the narrow pass of the Valley of Coele Syria. The deserts, the mountains, and the sea were the natural fortifications of that vineyard which was 'hedged round about' with tower and trench, sea and desert, against the 'boars of the wood' and the 'beasts of the field.""

The face of the country has peculiar yet simple features. Four plainly-marked belts run from north to south; the Maritime Plain along the sea-coast; a central belt of mountains; a broad valley through which flows the Jordan; and, lastly, a belt of table-land east of the last-mentioned river.

The Maritime Plain scarcely exists north of the Ladder of Tyre (p. 417), or at least is only represented by a narrow slip about two miles wide, on which, however, once flourished the great cities of Phoenicia. South of the Ladder of Tyre the true boundary between Phoenicia and Palestine, the Maritime Plain fairly commences. Cornfields and pasture lands

stretch inland for miles from the low sandy coast. Acre (p.414) stands on the shore, and the Belus and the Kishon flow across the plain to the sea. Beyond the Kishon the plain is broken by the bold ridge of Mount Carmel approaching very near to the sea, but allowing a good road round its base. The portion of the plain traversed by the Kishon is the Plain of Esdraelon, the great battle-field of Jewish History.

South of Carmel the great plain opens out and stretches away to Gaza. As far as Jaffa it is the Plain of Sharon, south of that town it is Philistia. A broad belt of sand forms the border of this plain along the shore. This sand is year by year advancing on the cultivated land, and nothing seems able to stay its progress. In some places the sand has raised hills two hundred feet in height, and at Gaza the belt is four miles in width. The plain is mostly bleak and uncultivated, except the rich orchards and groves round Jaffa and a few other places, and the abundant corn-fields in a portion of Philistia. Innumerable Wádies, or beds of mountain torrents, cross the plain, which varies in width from about eight miles at Cæsarea to twelve at Jaffa and twenty at Gaza.

The central range of mountains running from Lebanon southward through Palestine, is intersected in the middle by the Plain of Esdraelon. The northern portion of this range consists of the Hills of Galilee. The ridges of Gilboa and Little Hermon traverse the Esdraelon plain, which is also overlooked by Mount Tabor (1800 feet).

South of the Plain of Esdraelon stretches an unbroken tract of mountains, about thirty miles in breadth, and rising in height towards the south, till near Hebron it attains an elevation of three thousand feet above the sea. The northern part of this region comprised Samaria and Southern Judæa. The principal mountains of Samaria are Ebal and Gerizim, rising to the height respectively of 2700 and