it for one of a more civilised kind were not altogether those of unmixed pleasure.
Time did not admit of a prolonged stay at this interesting old city, but only of a visit to the beach, the fountain, and "the House of Simon the Tanner."[1] A natural breakwater of calcareous sandstone projects outwards into the Mediterranean from the ancient walls at the south end of the town. Outside this all large ships are obliged to cast anchor; and passengers as well as cargoes have to be received and discharged by means of boats, which frequently have to breast a heavy surf. The rock is seen under the lens to be composed of comminuted shells, pieces of coral, and other marine forms; and it appeared to me to be of recent formation, raised into the air when the whole sea-bed was being elevated. A similar formation of shelly limestone appears still to be in process of consolidation along the shore further towards the north, where it is quarried just under the sands at the margin of low water. The shells of which it is formed are those which strew the shore in immense numbers, chiefly those of Pectunculus glycineris.
A similar formation has been recognised by Drs. Hedenborg and Lartet as occurring at other points of the coast of Palestine and Syria, as, for example, at Tyre and Sidon, and they attribute its position at, or near, the surface, to the recent slow elevation of the sea-bed, which may be still in progress.[2]
Having made a circuit of the town, and paid off our dragoman Ibraham and his assistant, we mounted our horses early in the afternoon in order to proceed to Ramleh, where we proposed to break the journey by passing the night on our way to Jerusalem. The hotel at Ramleh, like that at Jaffa, was kept by a German Lutheran, and was clean and comfortable. A pretty little gazelle was the playmate of the family, and we felt grateful to the German nation all round, who send settlers to Palestine in order to provide "gasthausen" for weary travellers. Ramleh is a village pleasantly situated amongst gardens, and groves of olive-trees, sycamores, and carob-trees. Its lofty tower rises high above the surrounding country, and is a work of great skill and excellence; both Christians and Moslems claim the honour of having erected it, and if we are to believe the inscription over the door, the honour is due to the latter. Ramleh is a town of
