mer, Dr. Goldschmidt of Göttingen, to whom I beg leave to return very cordial thanks for the calculations which follow, the geocentric longitude of Jupiter on the first of February 750 was 55° 58′; that of Saturn 14° 17'. Both planets were then visible. Jupiter culminated at 6 o'clock and 42 minutes, and set in the latitude of Jerusalem 1 hour and 32 minutes after midnight, 22° 48′ north of west. Saturn culminated at 4 o'clock and 4 minutes, and set at 10 o'clock and 13 minutes P. M., 4° 17′ north of west. Since, therefore, they were now 41° apart, only one of the two could come into the account. Hence, perhaps the most probable view is, that the star which went before the Magi, was the new star mentioned above. In that case they must have made their journey to Bethlehem in the morning; for the constellation, Capricorn, in which it appeared, stood in the south-eastern sky, in the month of February, only in the morning. Nothing is more natural than that the thoughts of the Magi, as, full of expectation they were on the way to Bethlehem, should have been employed upon the celestial body which had brought them to Jerusalem in quest of the Messiah, and that when it again shone upon their path, they should have been filled with joy (Matt. 2: 10). Its appearance at that time, they would naturally regard as a good omen; and the more, from its seeming to move in the same direction with the road as if to be their guide. And when Bethlehem, the object of their search, came in sight on the summit of an eminence, they saw the star standing over it. Joyfully they hastened along, and came into the house, where they found the infant Saviour.

[To be continued.]

ARTICLE VIII.

THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN, THE LAKE EL-HÛLEH, AND

THE ADJACENT COUNTRY.

By Rev. W. M. Thomson, Missionary in Syria. Communicated, with Notes, by E. Robinson.

THE Dead Sea, the Lake of Tiberias, and the interesting valley of the Jordan, have been so frequently visited and so well described by recent travellers, that the topography of all that region has become familiar to almost every one. The case is different with the Lake Hûleh, the sour

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ces of the Jordan, and the regions adjacent. Having enjoyed the pleasure of a hasty excursion among these interesting localities, I now throw together some extracts from notes taken at the time, in the hope that they may not be unacceptable to the readers of your valuable publication. I commence my extracts with our departure from Hasbeiya.

Sept. 20th, 1843. We left the palace of the Emirs of Hasbeiya, (a Muslim branch of the house of Shehâb, distinct from those who have so long governed in Lebanon,) about sun-rise, and in half an hour reached the fountain of the Hasbâny. Our path led us across the bed of a winter torrent, which comes down from the mountains on the east of Hasbeiya, and over a rocky hill covered with lava boulders. The fountain lies nearly N. W. from the town, and boils up from the bottom of a shallow pool, some eight or ten rods in circumference. The water is immediately turned, by a strong stone dam, into a wide mill-race. This is undoubtedly the most distant fountain, and therefore the true source of the Jordan. It at once, even in this dry season, forms a considerable stream. It meanders for the first three miles through a narrow, but very lovely and highly cultivated valley. Its margin is protected and adorned with the green fringe and dense shade of the sycamore, button, and willow trees, while innumerable fish sport in its cool and crystal bosom. It then sinks rapidly down a constantly deepening gorge of dark basalt for about six miles, when it reaches the level of the great volcanic plain extending to the marsh above the Hûleh. Thus far the direction is nearly south; but it now bears a little westward, and in eight or ten miles, falls into the marsh about midway between the eastern and western mountains. Pursuing a southern direction through the middle of the marsh for about ten miles, it enters the Lake Hûleh not far from its N. W. corner, having been immensely enlarged by the waters from the great fountains of Bâniâs, Tell el-Kâdy, el-Mellâhah, Derakit or Belât, and innumerable other springs. The distance from the fountain of Hasbâny to the lake cannot be less than twenty-five miles, and nearly in a straight direction. The Hûleh may be eight miles long; and the river after it issues from the lake preserves the same southerly course, until it falls into the sea of Tiberias. The great fountain of Hasbâny, therefore, has an indisputable title to stand at the head of the springs and fountains and lakes of this very celebrated and most sacred river.

Although the channel immediately above the fountain of the Hasbâny is, during most of the year, dry and dusty, yet during the rainy season a great volume of water rushes down from the heights of Jebel es-Sheikh above Rasheiya, a distance of twenty miles, and unites with the water of this fountain. The stream is then so formidable as to require a good stone bridge, which is thrown across it a few rods below the fountain.

From this bridge we reached the famous bitumen wells in twenty minutes. They are dug in the eastern slope of the mountain, a little to the north of the village Kaukaba, and about three quarters of an hour S. W. of Hasbeiya. I was disappointed in the locality. Nothing on the surface indicates the presence of such a mineral. The wells are dug in the side of a smooth and gently declining hill, of soft chalky rock, or indurated marl, abounding in nodules of flint. A shaft is sunk about twenty feet deep, to the bed or stratum of bitumen, which appears to lie horizontally, and is wrought like coal mines. These wells are not now worked; but the Sheikh who formerly rented them of the government informed me, that the supply was apparently inexhaustible; and were it not for the exorbitant demands of the Pasha, bitumen would be sold at the wells for about one hundred piastres the Cantar. As the geological formation is exactly similar for many miles north and south of the mine, it is not improbable, that this valuable product 'may be very abundant, and at some future day of better things to Syria, become an important article of commerce.

Thirty-five minutes ride along the banks of the Hasbâny, brought us from the bitumen wells to the Khân of Hasbeiya. This is a large and very ancient caravansary, a regular quadrangle, eighty paces square, with an eastern and western entrance. The eastern entrance had been highly ornamented in the Saracenic style. There are several Saracenic inscriptions; but in a character so singular and involved, that our guide, though skilled in Arabic calligraphy, could not decipher them. There was once an elegant Mosk attached to this Khân.-These large and expensive buildings standing alone in the desert, and by the side of now almost untrodden paths, add the sad testimony of their dilapidated walls and unnecessary accommodations, to the general signs of decay and desertion, which meet the traveller at every step of his pilgrimage through Syria. There must have been once much more wealth to construct, and more travel and trade to protect and accommodate, than now, or these establishments would never have been built. The whole Khân, with the grounds attached, will not rent for fifty dollars a year.

There is a fair held at this place every Tuesday, frequented by the peasantry from the districts of Hasbeiya, 'Ard el-Hûleh, Belâd Beshârah, Belad Shukif, Merj 'Ayûn, and Jezzin. Large quantities of coarse earthen ware, manufactured at the village called Râsheiyet el-Fukhâr, are exhibited for sale, with various kinds of cotton, woollen, and silk fabrics, woven in Hasbeiya. Also horses and mules, donkeys, camels, neat cattle, sheep, goats, butter, oil, cheese, and all other sorts of eatables, are paraded on the plain, or exhibited in the stalls which cover the hill to the south of the Khân. I counted fifty pair of millstones constructed of

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the porous lava of the Hauran, and brought here for sale by the Bedawin. There are sixty-four stalls or booths, arranged in rows, on the hill near the Khân, in which the venders expose their wares. The hill itself is wholly volcanic.

From the Khan our path led along the western bank of the Hasbâny, and passing several mills and a stone bridge, we came in fifteen minutes to a long oval hill covered with a dense forest of mountain-oak, whose deep green refreshed the eye with its bright and happy contrast to the barren and burnt district around. We skirted the base of this oakhill for twenty minutes, and then entered an olive grove which extended for about three miles to the south. Thus far the Hasbâny had been our constant and cheerful companion; but as the path ́now kept along the level plain, while the stream sank down in its rocky channel, its lively murmur, now heard, now lost, fell fainter and more faintly on the ear, until from the depth and distance it could no longer be distinguished.

At the termination of the olive grove the valley suddenly widens into a plain, which it took forty-five minutes of brisk riding to cross. It is every where covered with lava, and terminates by a rapid descent around the base of a conical limestone hill, remarkable only from its isolated position in the midst of a wild waste of volcanic tuf. This descent brought us down to the general level of the great volcanic plain, which stretches down to the very margin of the marsh of the Hûleh. We here crossed the Hasbâny, and inclining to the left along the base of the mountains, reached Bânias in two hours and three quarters from the ford.

or

During all this ride of five hours, we passed through no village. On the western mountain, though not visible, are the villages, Îbel Âbil el-Hawa, el Khiyam, and el-Ghŭjar; and on the east, Râsheiyet el-Fukhâr, el-Khureibeh, and el-Màrieh, as also two encampments of Arabs, called es-Subân and es-Subeib. There is a sprinkling of burnt and blasted oak trees, standing here and there, like sentinels over these gray boulders of basalt, which strew the plain as far as the eye can reach. As you approach Bâniâs, vegetation greatly increases, and puts on a livelier hue, until, coming within the magic influence of her thousand rills, you are surprised with the verdure and fragrance of a little Eden.

Bâniâs. The city is securely embosomed among mountains, which stand around it on the northwest, north, east, and south. The platform, or terrace, upon which it is built, may be elevated about one hundred feet above the extensive plain of which we have already spoken. That part of the city which was within the ancient walls, lay directly south of the fountain. The stream formed a deep channel along the northern and western walls; and a part of the water was formerly carried into the ditch, which protected the eastern wall, and fell into the deep ravine of

the mountain-torrent, Wady el-Kid, on the margin of which the southern wall was constructed. Thus the city was surrounded by water, and defended on all sides by natural ravines, except on the east, which was secured by a wide and deep fosse. The walls were very thick and solid, and were strengthened by eight castles or towers; and before the introduction of artillery, Bâniâs must have been almost impregnable. The shape of the city is an irregular quadrangle, longest from east to west, and widest at the eastern end. The whole area is small, not being much more than a mile in circumference. The north-eastern corner is occupied by about fifty wretched hovels, constituting the entire modern representatives of this great city. The western half is overgrown with luxuriant briars and thorns, which cover up, and quite conceal, two or three flouring mills. Another mill has been built in the southern ravine, beneath one of the castles, to which the water is conveyed from the fountain through the city in a covered canal. A good stone bridge, probably Roman, spans the ravine at this castle; and the modern road into the country south of the city passes over it.

The suburbs appear to have been far more extensive than the city itself. The plain towards the north-west, west, and south-west, is covered with columns, capitals, and foundations, bearing indubitable testimony to the ancient size and magnificence of Bâniâs. And should Syria ever again become a flourishing country, this place would speedily rise into a large and important city. Its many natural advantages would secure this result. A more retired, protected, and charming spot for a city could scarcely he found. So thought the spies of the Danites, when their brethren asked them on their return, "What say ye? And they said arise, that we may go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good. And are ye still? Be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land. When ye go, ye shall come to a people secure, and to a large land; for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth." This is certainly very high praise; but still the place has singular advantages, and the soil of the whole tract is of surpassing fertility. There is a greater variety of natural productions, and of a size superior to those I have observed in other parts of this country. The public lounge of Bâniâs is under a terebinth tree, whose branches cast a shadow seventy-five paces in circumference. Other trees are large in proportion. Vegetation in general is very rank, and almost every production of the earth might be brought to great perfection. Extensive fields of maize present a beautiful prospect to an American eye. The wild boars feed luxuriously upon

1 Judges 18: 8-10.