heads of iron bolts. The greatest peculiarity was, perhaps, the small stone knocker, in the centre of one of the pannels, cut like the seeming iron bars and bolts, all of it of one solid stone, and of a piece with the door itself, so as to give it the appearance of a well-secured dwelling on approaching it.

The door was fixed like those in the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem, by a long circular spindle, running up into a cell in the thick and solid architrave above, and a short lower pivot bedded in a shallower socket in the threshold below ; these pivots being both of a piece with the door itself. By clearing away the rubbish, we found the door to traverse easily on its hinges, and we could see that the manner of hanging it must have been to insert first, the upper spindle into the circular hole in the architrave, and then to bring the lower pivot immediately over its socket, suffering it to fall into it; as the space between the upper part of the door and the foot of the architrave, was just equal to the length of the pivot below. A small overlapping piece was left to descend like a moulding, at the foot of the architrave in front, so that, though the vacant space was visible when the door was open, this stone ledge completely covered it when the door was closed.

Leaving this tomb, we ascended the hill, and

found others still more interesting; as, besides the door of the same construction still standing, we entered one in which were ten sepulchres, ranged along the inner wall of the chamber in a line, being pierced inward for their greatest length, and divided from each other by a thin partition left in the rock, in each of which was cut a small niche in front, for a lamp, as in the royal tombs at Jerusalem. Several of these niches were seen also on the side-walls of this excavation; and though every sepulchre had been violated, some of the sarcophagi, broken and reversed, still remained in the room.

At the side of this chamber was an opening, communicating with a larger and more rude excavation, in which was a dark arched passage of some length; as a stone which was thrown in returned no sound, though propelled with all our force.

The outer door was exactly similar to the one last described, both in size and design; having the pannels, the studded bar, and the knocker, as well as a small cavity near the centre of its side-edge, with a corresponding opening in the opposite portal, for some kind of fastening or bolt to be let in. The ornament of the architrave, instead of the busts before described, was a garland in the centre, with a full blown flower on each side.

Among a number of other tombs which we entered, all very similar in design, some without sarcophagi, and others containing several, both perfect and broken, we found one door entirely plain; another having only the studded bar down the middle, without pannels or knocker; and another more strongly ornamented with imitations of iron-bolts, as if to represent an additional effort for security. The ornaments of the architraves were chiefly garlands and flowers,' and these, with their portals and thresholds, were all of the black stone. The door last described was still hanging, and some sarcophagi were lying within the chamber which it guarded.

*

Beyond these we found innumerable sarcophagi of the same basaltic material, some highly ornamented with garlands and wreaths, others with heads of Apollo, and little Cupids, or genii with wings, joining hands together beneath those heads; and some with shields, as we had seen them. at Geraza. The covers, which were numerous,

* Capt. Beaufort met with tombs similar to these in Asia Minor. He says, " At Makry, Myra, and other places, is the excavated catacomb, with the entrance carefully closed by a slab, which is not inserted, but worked in the external face of the rock, and curiously pannelled, in such exact imitation of a wooden door, that even the representation of the nail-heads and hinges is not omitted." Beaufort's Caramania, p. 191.

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were all pent-roofed, and had, at their corners, the quarter section of the globe in the Roman style, as well as marks of their fastenings to the lower part of the sarcophagi, still remaining. At the ends were generally wreaths of flowers or rings, and on the sides the devices described; but none presented specimens of very fine sculpture, for which, indeed, the stone itself was unfit. There were scarcely less than two hundred of these sarcophagi perfect, besides the broken ones; and all were torn out of the tombs, and laid in heaps above-ground.

At length we reached the summit of the hill on which the ruins of the Roman city stands ; and though the country around is stoney and bare, and the hills destitute of wood or verdure, it was impossible not to admire the commanding view from hence, and the extent and grandeur of the scene, devoid as it was of more finished or softer beauties. Beneath us, on the N. E., flowed the Nahr-el-Hami, or the ancient Hieromax, coming from the eastward, through high cliffs on its northern bank, and a bed of verdant shrubs on its southern, and bending its way by the hot springs and ruins of the Roman bath on its edge, to increase the waters of the Jordan. On the N. W., in a deep hollow, surrounded by lofty hills, was the still sea of Galilee *, or lake

of Gennessaret *, on the southern bank of which stood the small village of Sumuk, and on the western the town of Tiberias, still preserving nearly its ancient name. From this lake, now unruffled by the slightest breeze, the Shereeah of the Arabs, or the Jordan of earlier days, was seen to issue, and wind its southern course through a desert plain, between the mountains of Judea and those of Arabia, till it emptied itself from this second reservoir into the larger one of the Dead Sea. The whole view, indeed, was as grand from its scenery as it was interesting from the recollections which it could not fail to inspire.

After devoting about an hour to the examination of the ruins of Gamala, and traversing them on foot in every direction, we were enabled to perceive that the city formed nearly a square; its greatest length being from east to west, which we found to measure one thousand six hundred and seventy paces, of about two feet each, or just half a mile; and its breadth, perhaps, one fourth less. The upper part of the city stood on a level spot, on the summit of the hill, and appears to have been walled all around, the acclivities of that hill being on all sides exceedingly steep, and having appearances of

* Luke, v. 1.