Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/197

Rh rose the huge pile of the Greek Convent, where the travellers were to rest.

To the extreme right we could get a glimpse of the northern lip of the Salt Sea; and to the left, looking across the deeply worn channel of the Kelt, were the mounds of Jericho rising from amongst gardens, and lying near the foot of the stupendous cliffs of Jebel Karantul, which here bound the plain of the Jordan. Over the whole scene was spread a lurid haze, indicative of the grand thunderstorm which was to burst upon us during the night.

Descending by the steep pathway into the plain, we turned our horses' heads towards the left; and crossing the Kelt pushed onwards towards the mounds of ancient Jericho, where our tents had been pitched, by the side of the warm and copious spring of Ain es Sultân. The site and surroundings of ancient Jericho have often been described, and it is unnecessary for me to say much on the subject. It is a spot of great interest, where baths, aqueducts, roads, and mounds of pottery attest its former importance. The source of this is, without doubt, to be found in its magnificent springs, both of tepid and cold waters. These impart verdure to the soil; and for sanitary purposes were, as we know, highly prized, especially in Roman times. Jericho was the city of palm-trees, of which none now remain; but the constant supply of running water, combined with the intense heat, causes the gardens of Gilgal, close by, to produce lemons and oranges, bananas, castor-oil plants, besides melons, figs, and grapes. Sugarcanes were extensively cultivated down to the time of the Crusaders, and the ruins of the sugar-mills formed a prominent object on the hill above our camp.

Our tents were pitched a few yards below the Sultan's Spring, which issues forth into an ancient basin of hewn stone. The temperature of the water is 84° Fahr., and the stony bed of the brook is thickly strewn with the dark purple shells of several species of molluscs. Our camp was at an elevation (by aneroid) of 520 feet above the Salt Sea, and on the margin of a terrace which stretches for several miles towards the banks of the Jordan. A second terrace of gravel may be observed on both sides of the limestone ridge on which were erected the sugar-mills; this terrace is 630 feet above the same datum, and seems to represent