Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/206

170

Saturday evening all our preparations for an early start on Monday morning were concluded. We had taken leave of our friends, made our last purchases in the shops and bazaars, sorted our baggage, a large portion of which was entrusted to Mr. Clarke, the agent of Messrs. T. Cook and Son, for direct transmission to England. The horses and baggage mules had also been secured, and Bernhard Heilpern was again to act as our conductor as far as Beyrût. The length of the journey was estimated for fifteen days.

On the following day we attended Divine Service in the English church, and we retired to rest expecting to be on our way soon after daybreak; but it was not so to be! At the time appointed Heilpern knocked at our doors, saying, "You need not stir, gentlemen, we are snowed up; travelling is impossible!" So it was! The wind had shifted to the west, increasing to a gale, and with it came a heavy snowfall, which did not cease till the whole country was covered to a depth of 2 feet and upwards. Such a fall had not occurred for five years. During the whole of Monday the storm raged furiously, accompanied by snow and rain, and during that night Laurence's thermometer registered four degrees of frost (28° Fahr.). But we resolved to wait for a day or two longer in hopes of a change of wind and a rapid thaw such as sometimes happens in these parts. Our hopes, however, were not destined to be realised. The air continued bitterly cold up till Tuesday evening, and little progress was made in thawing the snow even during the noonday sun. All traffic, even by road, was stopped; the postman to Jaffa was obliged to halt at "half-way house," and the telegraph wires were broken. On Wednesday morning, seeing that further delay would be useless, arrangements were made for a return to Jaffa in order to catch the Austrian Lloyd's steamer on the following Friday; and I despatched letters to the Secretary of the