MOUNT GILBOA AND THE FOUNTAIN OF JEZREEL.

the slender minaret whence the muezzin cry may be heard from Samaria to Galilee. The views from this minaret are worth a journey to Palestine to see. The backward look towards Shechem and Samaria affords a new view of Ebal and Gerizim, and not only covers a splendid country under a high state of cultivation, dotted with olive groves as fine as any south of Damascus, but embraces a region full of thrilling his tory. In some places the long lines of the broken arches of an aqueduct lifted high in the air remind you of the Roman Campagna. Down in the fields near Samaria, if your observations are made in the afternoon, you may see strangelooking vertical masses of light arranged in a long eccentric row, at irregular distances from one another. Sometimes they look like specters, sometimes like masses of water thrown up by some deep artesian power as if intended to irrigate the fertile fields wherein they have been marshaled by kingly direction. They are, indeed, the granite remnants of the great colonnade of Sebaste, which Herod built, reflecting the strong sunlight as it comes to them from across the plain. Right among them you may also see picturesque ruins of the crusader's day. Then, when your eyes fall nearer to your lookout, you will see a richly cultivated country. The whole region is hilly. The rocks protrude from the hills

on every side, yet every spot of ground from the bases to the summits presents testimony to the thrift of the husbandman. Every valley has its stream even now. The tiniest of these is made to drive the wheels of some primitive flour mill. You may see the long line of the Mediterranean on the left. Turning to the north and west, besides the mountains already named, far beyond you may see the spurs of the Anti-Lebanon range with the snowy peak of Mount Hermon looking like the light surrounding clouds. The eastern slopes of Gilboa and Little Hermon lead your mind down to the long, dark, and narrow depression which marks the course of the winding Jordan, and another depth of shadow, at that distance looking almost as round as a well, discloses the location of the Sea of Galilee. At your feet, beginning as soon as you look beyond the borders of the village, is the lovely plain. The rich carpeting supplied by nature is indescribable. There are no fences between the vast undulating plots of green and gold and pink and gray; but the narrow roads, with soil as red as the shale of northern New Jersey, mark out the boundaries for the Bedouin husbandmen. A silvery stream, whose startingpoint cannot be made out, may be discerned finding its way down from west to east. It is the river Kishon, on whose borders Sisera was defeated; where, while he was awearied and asleep, Jael drove the tent-pin through his head and fastened it to the ground; and where Elijah slew the priests of Baal. This view in the springtime looks like a great garden under the highest state of cultivation. The position of the plain supplies the key to its bloody record. It is a broad avenue, open at each end, and has drawn to battle within its narrow limits the Philistines of the western coast, the Israelites of the east, and the Syrians from the north. Later on the armies of the Assyrians and of the Egyptians passed and repassed, rested and manoeuvered, previous to the awful struggles which followed. Even Napoleon here pitted his handful against a Mussulman horde that outnumbered him ten times or more. It has always been the main avenue for ingress and egress of the nomadic as well as the civilized

THE POOL IN HEBRON WHERE DAVID HUNG THE MURDERERS OF ISH-BOSHETH.

peoples who combated one another that they might possess the rich land surrounding.

The mountains and the towns which come within the broad encirclement of the eastern half of the plain are what most interest us now. We climb to the top of Mount Gilboa first. Its summit is almost bare. On the western incline every few rods there is a well or pit sunk into the solid rock. It is said that Joseph's brethren hid him in one of these pits, for the plain of Dothan is only a short distance away from the base of the mountain. Such pits are plenty in Palestine, and have been sunk to catch water when the winter torrents come rolling down. They have been provided by some kindly Jacob so that the thirsty traveler may find refreshment on the way.

The range of mountains known as the Little Hermon, the fountain of Jezreel, and the villages of Jezreel, Shunem, and Endor are the points of interest which come into the line marked out by the International Lessons, and they are all within an hour or so of the summit of Mount Gilboa-all within the borders of the plain of Esdraelon. There are only about twenty houses at Jezreel now, and the people are very squalid. Yet they support an ancient tower where they insist upon entertaining strangers at their own expense. Their hospitality does not create a desire to remain with them during the season, but the view from their tower compensates for all the loss of appetite caused by their curdled goat's milk and unleavened bread.

Endor lies near here. There is not much to attract one, except the number of caves or caverns which have been hewn in the cliffs overlooking the village. If bats are witches, as some maintain, and witches are bats, then Endor has lost none of its ancient reputation. At least the appearance of things VOL. XXXVIII.-114.

thereabouts is uncanny enough, and you will be glad to spur your horse back towards the fountain of Jezreel. This fountain holds the next interest for us. It is a beauty spot and a natural wonder. When on Mount Gilboa, if you have a guide who knows the country, you may ride northward until you come to the point where the mountain abruptly ends, as though a section or at least a part of the slope had been cut away, as is often the case in railway construction: hold your guide's hand while you look over, and you will hear the trickling of water, the splashing of cattle, and the voices of their chattering attendants. They are all a hundred feet below you, where is a wide cavern walled by conglomerate rock, from which the waters break forth with suffi