whom are Dr. Tristram, who camped at el Basseh, but was drawn off from the smoother features of Kerkera, to the bold gorge of Wady el Kûrn and its) fine ruined castle which he has so well depicted. Mons. Guerin has reported on several of the ruined sites and villages of the Kerkera but he had no eye for the river basins, or for the mountainous and other natural features, except in a picturesque point of view, his attention being chiefly attracted by the present inhabitants, and the remnants left by their far more numerous and wealthy predecessors, who have passed away, leaving only abundant proofs of the natural capacity of the country at large to support a much larger population than the present. These smiling fields and pastures; woodlands, orchards and gardens; picturesque hills and valleys; amid high mountains and deep, precipitous gorges; would naturally swarm with people, if good government could be secured. In this desideratum all the manufacturing and trading nations of the earth have a common interest, no less than the sovereign and people of the localities immediately concerned, for whatever adds to the productiveness of the soil promotes consumption in general, and enlarges the demand for every article that adds to the comforts of life.
Dr. Robinson ignores Wady Kerkera altogether, and generally confuses the topography of this tract.[1] For it is the Kerkera, and not Wady el Kûrn, which drains the southern slope of the range that terminates in Ras en Naktirah. And as for Teirshiha, it is quite within the basin of Nahr Mefshukh (Mabshuk), instead of being on the southern side of Wady el Kûrn; although no doubt it may appear to be so from the distance at which Dr. Robinson made his observation. In tracing the Wady el Kûrn up to Jebel Jurmuk, Dr. Robinson is quite right as he generally is in dealing with the broader aspects of his subject. No one can be a greater admirer of Dr. Robinson's geographical genius than the present writer, and these remarks, far from
- ↑ "Bib, Res.," vol. iii, 66.,
