closure of the ancient city, and if so must have been at its northern extremity, as just beyond it are a number of old tombs, apparently of higher antiquity than the present town.

In about an hour after quitting Tiberias we came to the remains of some ancient baths, close to the water's edge. Of these there were three in number, the only portion of each remaining being a large circular cistern, in which the visitors must have bathed openly, as there is no appearance of any covered building ever having been constructed over them. They were all nearly of the same size; the one around the edge of which I walked being eighty paces in circumference, and from twelve to fifteen feet deep. Each of these were distant from the other about one hundred yards, ranging along the beach of the lake, and each was supplied by a separate spring, rising also near the sea. The water was in all of them beautifully transparent, of a slightly sulphureous taste, and of a lightgreen colour, as at the bath near Oom Kais; but the heat of the stream here was scarcely greater than that of the atmosphere, as the thermometer in the air stood at 84°, and when immersed in water rose to 86°. The first of these circular cisterns had a stone bench or pathway running round its interior, for the accommodation of the bathers, and the last had a similar work on the

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outside; in the latter a number of small black fish were seen swimming. * Each of the baths was supplied by a small aqueduct from its separate spring, and there were appearances of a semi-circular wall having inclosed them all within

one area.

Leaving this spot, we continued our way along the lake, and about nine o'clock, came to a small village called Migdal, where a few Mohammedan families reside. This is seated near the edge of the lake, beneath a range of high cliffs, in which small grottoes are seen; and besides the few dwellings of the present inhabitants, there are the remains of an old square tower, and some larger buildings of rude construction, and ap. parently great antiquity. † This place is, no doubt, the Magdala of the Gospel, to the coasts of which Jesus was conveyed by ship, after his

* Pliny mentions a fountain in Armenia, that had black fishes in it, of which whoever ate died suddenly. Nat. Hist. b. xxxi. c. 2.

+ Migdal signifies "a tower," in Hebrew, and, as such, is given as an affix to many scriptural names, as may be seen in Reland, 1. iii. p. 897, 898. It is in speaking of the tower of Eder, beyond which Jacob spread his tent, (Gen. xxxv. 21.) and which was thought to be near to Bethlehem, that he notices another place of the same name near the lake of Tiberias-Fit et mentio loci Migdal Eder in vita R. Simeonis Ben Chalaphta: quamvis ille locus videatur prope mare Tiberiadis situs fuisse, ubi 7771 Maydaλa Tadagur Lightfootus constituit à Gadaris dicta." Lib. iii. de urbibus, p. 898.

feeding the multitude on a mountain nigh unto the sea of Galilee*, and the Migdal of the earlier Scriptures. +

From this we entered upon a more extended plain, the hills retiring from the lake on the left; and continuing our course in a straight line across it, so as to leave the beach at some little distance on our right, we reached, in half an hour, a place called Khan-el-Munney.. There are remains of a large Saracen khan, or caravansera, here, from which the place derives its name; and near the same spot we observed several large mill-stones, now broken.

Passing on, in a more easterly direction, we ascended over a little promontory, around which there was no road by the beach, and remarked the remains of a narrow paved way. Close by this, on the hill on our left, we were shewn what is considered to be the site of Gennesareth, but we could trace no remains of any buildings on the spot. It was here, too, our guides said, that the legion of devils entered into the swine, who ran violently down a steep place into the sea. ‡ The voyages of Jesus and his disciples by ship across this lake, are so vaguely described that it is exceedingly difficult to understand them clearly. From St. Mark, who first relates this

*Matt. xv. 29. † Joshua, xix. 38.

St. Mark, v. 13.

story, the scene appears to have been on the eastern side of the lake, as far as can be gathered from the context. After his withdrawing himself with his disciples to the sea, where great multitudes from Galilee followed him *, and requested that a small ship should wait on him, because of the multitude, lest they should throng him †, Jesus is first described to have gone up into a mountain, where he ordained the twelve Apostles ‡, and afterwards to have entered into a ship, and sat on the sea, while the whole multitude was by the sea on the § land. And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them," Let us pass over unto the other side." || And they came over unto the other side of the sea, unto the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, &c." ¶ St. Luke, who is more explicit in all his details, says expressly, after describing the passage of Jesus and his disciples across the lake, “And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.” ** He says also," then the whole multitude of the

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country of the Gadarenes round about, besought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear; and he went up into the ship and returned back again.” † St. Mark also adds, that the man thus freed from the legion of devils, departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. "And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea," &c. The country of the Decapolis is known to have been on the east of this lake, and that of the Gadarenes, which appears, from the testimony of both these writers, to have been the scene of the miracles in question, must have been on the east also, to be over against Galilee, as St. Luke describes it; so that the fixing on the spot near Gennesareth could have been suggested by no other consideration, than that it was the steepest place on the west side of the lake leading immediately down into the sea, and that it was more convenient to possess holy ground on this side, than the other, where the dominion of the Bedouins renders religious visits difficult, if not impossible.

* St. Matthew calls it the country of the Gergesenes, viii. 28.

† St. Luke, viii. 37.

St. Mark, v. 20, 21.