On arriving at the fords of the Jordan, which have been so often described as to require but little notice here,[1] some of our party prepared for a plunge into its turgid waters, with, I fear, less reverent thoughts than the ardent pilgrims we had fallen in with the day before. The stream is about 50 yards from bank to bank, which are clothed with tamarisks, willows, and tall reeds.
While we were having lunch on the grassy terrace, some Greek or Russian pilgrims came down from the convent to bathe, and it was an amusing, if not very edifying, sight to watch their performances. From the delicate manner in which they entered the stream, it might be inferred that bathing was not a pastime in which they often indulged; and as some of them, at least, probably recollected that they would not again have so excellent an opportunity for fleshly purification, they proceeded to a very systematic course of washing, aided by a good lather of soap!
I was surprised to observe the water of the Jordan so turgid that it reminded me of the waters of the Nile, or of some streams descending from glacier valleys. It is well known that streams which issue forth from lakes, as is the case with the Jordan, are generally clear, as the mud is deposited in each instance over the bed of the lake itself. The Rhone may be cited as an illustration. Entering the head of the Lake of Geneva, charged with mud from the Alpine glaciers, the suspended matter subsides, and the waters issue forth at the lower end clear as crystal. Such, I supposed, would be the case with the Jordan; but, as I am informed, though the river issues forth from the Sea of Galilee as a clear stream, it flows along between muddy banks, so that its waters become more and more impregnated with silt, till on entering the head of the Salt Sea they resemble those of the Nile at Cairo. The temperature of the water was 61° Fahr. ; that of the air 72° Fahr., in the shade about noon.[2]
On our way back from the Jordan, both we and our horses were unanimous as to the excellence of the ground for a trial of speed, so giving them the reins we were soon flying over the ground neck to neck. It required neither whip nor spur to make our little steeds show their mettle, for they were ever ready for the course, and none liked to be beaten. Gordon's horse proved, I think, to be the fastest; Laurence's
