ridge of rocky hills, running close to the sandy shore, which is here and there enlivered by a group of palm-trees.
We kept close to the sea till we came, in about one hour and a half, to Athlîte, or Castellum Pelegrinum, a curious motley pile of ruins standing out on a rocky headland. The foundation stones are so massive, that they have resisted the storms of centuries, and tell of a time anterior to the Romans, who no doubt erected the fortress, built the walls, and fashioned the columns which are now falling to decay. The crusaders, too, have left some of their handiwork here—the pointed arches and the ruins of a Christian church still speak of them. Within the walls of the church, and under the shadow of the fortress, modern houses are rudely built,and inhabited by a poor Moslem population. A group of women were resting by a well of sculptured stone, just outside the walls. Opposite to this interesting place we found a narrow defile cut through the rocks, leading eastward direct from the shore to the plain. Deep ruts, for chariot wheels, were cut in the road, which was just wide enough for two horsemen to ride freely abreast. The white limestone walls rise abruptly on each side, garnished with patches of fragrant herbs and amber-colored lichen. Lintels at each end of this passage show that formerly it was protected by gates, and ruins of strong fortifications surmount it.
We passed out of this curious defile into the fertile but not very extensively-cultivated plain, or "Vale of Dor," between the mountain range of Carmel and the rocky coast hills under whose pleasant shade we pursued our way. We could see that the two chains of hills met at an acute angle far away in the north. Now and then, natural fissures in the rocks, or little valleys made fertile by Winter torrents, revealed to us the sun and the sea.
We stopped to water our animals at a little spring, called Ain Dustrei, which forms a tiny lake, and then finds its way between the hills to the shore. A group of goatherds, with reed pipes, were assembled round a clay
