was defiled by being one of common execution; and I think the very circumstance of these being there, is sufficient to induce a belief that it was not a place commonly devoted to so ignominious a purpose. All the gospels represent Jesus as being hurried away by the multitude, who seized indiscriminately upon one of the crowd to bear his cross. 'And when they were come to a place called Calvary, or Golgotha, there they crucified him between two thieves.' None of them, however, speak of it either as being a place without the city, or as being a place of public execution, but leave one to infer, that it was an unoccupied place, just pitched on for the purpose as they passed.

"Some persons whose ideas of Calvary had led them to expect a hill as large as the Mount of Olives, or Mount Sion, have been disappointed at finding the rock shown for it to be so low and small. But on what authority is it called a mount? and to places I of what different sizes and elevations is that term affixed! The present is a rock, the summit of which is ascended to by a steep flight of eighteen or twenty steps, from the common level of the church, which is equal with that of the street without; and besides this you descend from the level of the church by thirty steps into the chapel of St. Helena, and by eleven more steps to the place where it was supposed that the cross, the crown of thorns, and the head of the spear were found, after laying buried in this place upwards of three hundred years."

The road from Jerusalem to the Jordan, abounding as it does n the wildest scenery of nature,

ravines, cliffs and precipices mingling in awful and wonderful confusion, is the most dangerous about Palestine. "The very aspect of the scenery is sufficient, on the one hand, to tempt to robbery and murder, and, on the other, to occasion a dread of it in those who pass that way." After a walk of about six hours, they arrived at Jericho; but so entirely abandoned was this once-important city, that there was not a tree or shrub observable upon its site. The ruins appeared to cover nearly a square mile, but were too indistinct to enable the travellers to form any plan of them. Passing on about four miles in an easterly direction, they came to the village of Rihlah, on the banks of the Jordan. They saw nothing of importance in this place. The only objects pointed out to them were a modern square tower of Mohammedan work, which they pretend was the house of Zaccheus, and an old tree, up which he is said to have climbed, in order to obtain a sight of Jesus as he passed. The next day they passed the Jordan.

"The stream appeared to us to be little more than twenty-five yards in breadth, and was so shallow in this part as to be easily fordable by our horses. The banks were thickly lined with tall rushes, oleanders, and a few willows; the stream was exceedingly rapid; the water tolerably clear, from its flowing over a bed of pebbles; and, as we drank of the stream while our horses were watering, we found it pure and sweet to the taste.

"From the distance which we had come from Jericho northward,

it seemed probable that we had crossed the river pretty nearly at the same ford as that which was passed over by the Israelites on their first entering the promised land.

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Ascending on the east side of the Jordan, we met large flocks of camels, mostly of a whitish colour, and all of them young and never yet burthened, as our guides assured us, though the whole number of those we saw could not have fallen short of a thousand. These were being driven down to the Jordan to drink, chiefly under the care of young men and damsels. Among them many of the young ones were clothed around their bodies with coverings of hair teat-cloth, while the elder females had their udders bound up in bags, tied by cords crossing over the loins; and the males walked with two of the legs tied."

After travelling onward in a north-easterly direction, and passing the night in the camp of a tribe of friendly Bedouins, they arrived at the village of Boorza, which appeared to contain from forty to fifty dwellings of stone. This place is supposed to have

been the Bozer mentioned in the sacred writings. They proceeded, through a rich and beautiful country, to the ruins of Jerash, (the Geraza of the ancients,) of which Mr. Buckingham has given a very full and copious account. The following is the description of this city, viewed from a steep hill in its vicinity :

"The city, standing itself upon a rising ground, seemed, from this point of view, to be seated in the hollow of a grand and deep valley, encircled on all sides by lofty

mountains, now covered with verdure, and having part of its own plain below in actual cultivation. Near, on the summit of the southern hill which bounded the view in that quarter, stood the modern village of Aioode, having a central tower and walls, and forming the retreat of the husbandmen, who till the grounds in the valley beneath. The circular colonnade, the avenues of Corinthian pillars forming the grand street, the southern gate of entrance, the naumachia, and the triumphal arch beyond it, the theatres, the temples, the aqueducts, the baths, and all the assemblage of noble buildings which presented their vestiges to the view, seemed to indicate a city built only for luxury, for splendor, and for pleasure; although it was a mere colonial town in a foreign province, distant from the capital of the great empire to which it belonged, and scarcely known either in sacred or profane history. Wishing to take a more accurate survey of the ancient Geraza than they had hitherto been enabled to accomplish, the two travellers returned privately to that city for the purpose, thus avoiding the interruptions to which they would have been liable from the suspicious character of the neighbouring people.

The city occupied nearly a square of somewhat less than two English miles in circumference, and the greatest length, from the ruined arched building on the south of the first entrance to the small temple on the north side of the opposite one, is about five thousand feet, as measured by paces, or nearly an English mile. The general direction of this square

is, with its sides, nearly towards the four cardinal points; but none of these sides are perfectly straight, probably from the inequality of the ground along which they

run.

"The city stood on the facing slopes of two opposite hills, with a narrow, but not a deep valley between them, through which ran a clear stream of water springing from fountains near the centre of the town, and bending its way thence to the southward.

"The eastern hill, though rather more extensive in its surface than the western one, rises with a steeper slope, and is consequently not so well fitted for building on. We found it covered with shapeless heaps of rubbish, evidently the wreck of houses, as the walls of some of them were still visible; but as neither columns nor other vestiges of ornamental buildings were to be seen among these, we concluded that this portion of the city was chiefly inhabited by the lower orders of the people.

"The whole surface of the western is covered with temples, theatres, colonnades, and ornamental architecture, and was, no doubt, occupied by the more dignified and noble of the citizens. The general plan of the whole was evidently the work of one founder, and must have been sketched out before the Roman city, as we now see it in ruins, began to be built. The walls of the city were as nearly equal in length, and faced as nearly to the four cardinal points, as the nature of the ground would admit.

"The eastern portion was chosen for the residence of the great mass of the people; first, from

its being a more extensive sur face, and next, from its being less adapted to the erection of fine buildings, or the production of architectural effect. The western portion was devoted purely to the grandeur of display and decoration, and the regularity of its arrangement is no less striking than the number of splendid edifices crowded together in so small a space.

"One straight and spacious street extends through the whole length of the city from north to south, ending at the gates of these respective quarters, there being only these two now remaining; nor are there indeed any conclusive appearances of there ever having been any other than these two entrances into the city.

"The main street is intersected at nearly equal distances of onefourth of its length from each gate, by two other streets which cross it at right-angles, and extend through the whole breadth of this western portion of the city, the point of intersection in each being ornamented with a public square.

"From each of these intersections to their respectively nearest gate, the order of architecture that prevailed was Ionic; but in the central space between these intersections, and including a length equal to half that of the whole city, the predominant order was Corinthian.

"In the centre, or nearly so, of the central space, was a noble palace, probably the residence of the governor, with a beautiful Corinthian temple in front, and another more ruined one behind in right-lines with it, and the semi-circular recess of a still more highly-finished temple beside it.

In a line with these edifices, and on the east of them, was a bridge crossing the small stream in the valley. In a line with the first or southern street of intersection was another bridge; and nearly in a line with the northern street, and also on the east of it, was a very extensive bath.

"Just within the southern gate of entrance was a peripteral temple, a circular colonnade, and a theatre; and just within the northern gate of entrance was also a theatre, a temple, and a military guard-house. Both the principal streets extending the whole length of the city, and those which crossed its road through its breadth, were lined by avenues of columns, extending, in one unbroken range on each side, and ascended to by steps.

"There were also other edifices scattered in different parts of the city, which will be seen in examining the plan; but the whole was remarkable for the regularity and taste of its design no less than for its able and perfect execution."

Mr. B. thus speaks of Gamala: "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 onefourth 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 ruined buildings, even on their steepest parts. The eastern gate

of entrance has its portals still remaining, and was near the northern wall. From hence a noble street ran through the whole length of the city, extending the number of paces mentioned, as it was along this that the measurement was taken. This street was fifteen paces, or about thirty feet in breadth, from pillar to pillar; as it had a colonnade of the lonic and Corinthian orders, at intervals, lining it in avenues on each side, as at the ruins at Geraza. The street was paved throughout with fine squared blocks of the black volcanic stone, and this pavement was still so perfect that the ruts of carriagewheels were to be seen in it of different breadths, and about an inch in depth, as at the ruins of Pompeii in Italy.

"The first edifice which presented itself, on entering at the eastern gate, was a theatre on the left, the scene and front of which was entirely destroyed, but its benches were still remaining, and it faced towards the north. Still farther on were appearances of an Ionic temple, the colonnade of the street being continued; and at about the centre of its length, a range of Corinthian columns on pedestals marked the site of a grand edifice on the left; not a column now remained erect, but the plan could be distinctly traced. This apparent temple was a hundred paces in depth from north to south, or from the street inward, and its façade, which fronted the street and came in a line with the colonnade before described, was about seventy paces in breadth. The chief peculiarity of this edifice was, that it was built on a range of fine arches, so that the foundations

foundations were higher than the general level of the street, by which it must have been rendered most conspicuous.

"At the southern end of this edifice was a second theatre open to the west, and fronting the central cross-street which here intersected the city from north to south, at right angles with the larger one, running from east to west. This second theatre had only a small portion of its front preserved, but its benches and doors of entrance, the pavement of its stage, and part of its scene, were as perfect as either of those at Geraza, to which it was also equal in size, and nearly similar in design; but it was in less perfect preservation, and on the whole inferior in taste and execution of its details to either of them.

"Before we departed we were taken to see one of the ancient Roman tombs, now used as a carpenter's shop, the occupier being employed in constructing a rude plough, and in fixing the irons to one of those long Syrian goads, which serve to spur the animal with one end and clear the plough of clods with the other. On examining the size and weight of this iron at the foot, Maundrell's conjecture struck me as a very judicious one, that it might have been with such a weapon that Shamgar made the prodigious slaughter related of him in the book of Judges.

"From this tomb we went to a still more perfect one, which was entirely cleared, and now used as a private dwelling. Though the females of the family were within we were allowed to enter, and descended by a flight of three steps,

there being either a cistern or a deep sepulchre on the right of this descent. The portals and architrave were here perfectly exposed; the ornaments of the latter were a wreath and open flowers; the door also was divided by a studded bar and pannelled, and the ring of the knocker remained, though the knocker itself had been broken off. The door, which was of the same size and thickness as those described, traversed easily on its hinges, and we were permitted to open and close it at pleasure. On examining it closely, all that has before been said on the mode of fixing and of fastening it was confirmed, as we could here see every part of the construction more perfectly.

"The tomb was about eight feet in height on the inside, as there was a descent of a steep step from the stone threshold to the floor. Its size was about twelve paces square, but no light was received into it except by the door; we could not see whether there was an inner chamber, as in some of the others. A perfect sarcophagus still remained within, and this was now used by the family as a chest for corn and other provisions, so that this violated sepulchre of the dead had thus become a secure, a cool, and a convenient retreat to the living of a different race.

From Ooron Kais (the ancient Gamala) they went toward Nazareth, and thence to Tiberias. Passing through a number of small villages, without seeing any thing very remarkable, they journeyed along the lake of Tiberias.

"The present town of Tabareeah (Tiberias) is in the form of an irregular crescent, and is inclosed