highest point in the range, which commanded a wide prospect in every direction.
Looking eastward, I at once recognized the Dead Sea, calm and blue, and the long line of the Moab Mountains beyond; but the rest of the view all around was to me, as well as to Mr. W., only a maze of white, gray, and brown hills, and dark valleys checkered with cloud-shadows, without any roads or landmarks.
Mr. Finn read the landscape round for us, and its features soon grew familiar to me. We were looking eastward, and he said, "That dark ravine to the right, in the range of rocks on this side of the Dead Sea, is the Valley of the Wilderness of Engeddi, where David dwelled in strongholds' during his exile. That peak, like an extinct volcano, which rises above the surrounding hills, is the Frank Mountain, called by the Arabs, 'Jebel Furidus,' that is, the Lesser Paradise Mount. A little way to the right of it, on that terraced and rounded hill, are the ruins of Tekoa, where Amos guarded flocks and herds, and gathered wild figs, in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah, two years before the earthquake. We will go there some day, and look for a wise woman." Turning toward the north-east, he said, "Do you notice a depression in that long range? Look a little to the left of it, and you will distinguish the leaden roof of the Convent of Bethlehem, and then you can make out the surrounding buildings. Farther north is Mount Olivet; and, now that a black cloud is passing over Jerusalem, you can plainly see two tall minarets rising white and bright out of the city."
Many of the hills, especially in the south and east, were crowned with ruins, and showed signs of former cultivation, but now they were deserted. The stone walls of the ancient terraces were broken down, and the earth washed away, and, where vines and fig-trees once grew, thorns and thistles had sprung up—the whole land truly is made silent and desolate. We were overlooking a large portion of the division of the tribe of Judah. See Jer. vii, 34–"I will
