limpid water, from which the town is supplied. Travelers speak of large water-pots, carried by the women, as corresponding with those spoken of in the Gospel; but these do not at all correspond with the account of St. John. Mr. Buckingham saw two sarcophagi between Cana and Nazareth, used as water-troughs; and these, which possibly may have originally been cisterns, are much more suited to the circumstances of the miracle.

3. Divisions of GALILEE, and View of the WEST and SOUTH.

GALILEE, it has been already stated, had two divisions: the northern part, beginning about the parallel of the entrance of the Jordan into the Lake of Galilee, was the more mountainous, and was less suited to a dense population; and, in part from its situation, many of its inhabitants were of Gentile extraction. From these causes it was termed UPPER GALILEE, or GALILEE OF THE GENTILES: the more level and cultivated part was called LOWER GALILEE, or GALILEE simply. Josephus, in the place so often cited, specifies the boundaries of each; but the places which he mentions are now unknown. He describes the population of both Galilees as being very numerous, brave, and enured to war. Their soil, he says, was universally rich and fruitful: and they were full of plantations of trees of all sorts. The whole territory was, he states, well cultivated; and there were many cities and villages, i. e. walled and unwalled towns, so fully peopled, that the least of them had from more than five to ten thousand inhabitants. The Peræa, he allows, was more extensive than the whole of Galilee; but he says that it was inferior to it in population and culture, as well as in the general fertility of the soil.-Of the numerous cities and villages, few only are mentioned by name in the Gospels; and there are not many more, of which there are any clear traces to decide their locality.

The traveler in the northern part of the Holy Land so often sets out from Ptolemais, that the plan of this Dissertation renders it expedient to do the same in the survey of Galilee.

Ptolemais, more anciently Accho, now Acre, is on the north side of a semicircular bay, about three leagues in circuit, the south of which is formed by Mount Carmel. The bay is beautifully figured in the Landscape Illustrations. The river Kishon empties itself into it, at the centre of its shore, after traversing the plain of Esdraelon, in the east of which it rises. Ptolemais has the best harbour on the coast; but few traces remain of its former grandeur. Proceeding eastwards, the traveler crosses the beautiful and fertile Plain of Zabulon, which, even in July,

when Dr. Clarke visited it, appeared to be every where covered with spontaneous vegetation, flourishing in the wildest luxuriance. "The variety and beauty of the different species of Carduus or thistle in this country, (says Dr. Clarke), are well worth notice; a never failing indication of rich soil in any land. We observed one, in particular, whose purple head covered all the inland parts of Palestine with its gorgeous hues." Pococke passed this plain on the 8th of May, and says it was covered with corn not then cut.

Lamartine and his companions visited this part of Palestine in the autumn of 1832, approaching it from the northern coasts. His first impression at the sight of the Holy Land was "great, delightful, and profound"; and he contrasts with what he saw, the representations of those who have merely traveled the rocky route, under a burning sun, from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Having the Plain of Zabulon in sight, he thus describes the view before him.

"On the right and left, the sides of the hills are shaded, here and there, at the distance of ten paces, with tufts of evergreen shrubs. At a greater distance, rise trees with knotty trunks, interlaced branches, and a sombre and motionless foliage. They are principally green oaks, of a peculiar species, the stem of which is more slight and stately than those of Europe, and whose velvet-surfaced leaves are round, and not indented like those of the common oak of Europe. The carob tree, the mastic, and more rarely the plane tree and the sycamore, assist to form the clothing of these hills. There are, besides, many other trees whose names I do not know; some of them ha e leaves like the fir or the cedars, and others, which are most beautiful, resemble immense willows by the colour of their bark, and the tender yellow hues of their foliage. Between the spaces left by these trees, on the sides of the hills, are seen masses of a whitish or blue-grey rock, which have pierced the soil, and are devoid of vegetation; but between these blocks of rock, is found a deep, light, and black vegetable soil, which would produce plentiful crops of wheat or barley, with the slightest care of the husbandman. Other spots are covered with a prickly underwood, wild pomegranate trees, rose trees of Jericho, and enormous thistles, the stem of which is as high as the head of the camel.— One of these hills, thus described-you see them all nearly in their actual forms; and the imagination may represent to itself their effect, when cited in sketching the landscape of the Holy Land."

It was for this purpose that the passage has been extracted; since the description, while picturesque, and apparently true to nature, respects a season of the year when Palestine is seldom visited, and during which our Lord was journeying through the populous districts of Galilee. About ten miles from the sea, the Plain of Zabulon is bounded by a series of limestone hills, over which the direct road to Nazareth lies. Mr. Buckingham gives a detailed account of his route thither (Jan. 11), which often presented one unbroken scene of sterility as far as the eye could reach. He left the sands of Acre at eleven o'clock, and reached Nazareth about six in the evening, having hastened by Sepphoury.

Lamartine also says that, on leaving the Plain, they ascended little hills, each more barren than the former, to the village of Saphora; but his picturesque delineation of the hill-scenery at the commencement of the route, in the early morning, must be quoted; for such must often have been witnessed, in various parts of Galilee, during the acceptable year of the Lord.'

The first hills gradually ascend from the Plain, bearing, like grey or black spots on their sides, groups of olive trees and green oaks. Between these hills, and the more elevated and sombre mountains to which they serve as bases, and which command them majestically, a bluish white mist extends, and partially conceals, (throwing them completely into the background), the second line of mountains under this transparent curtain, which was here and there pierced by the rays of morning. More distant and still higher, a third chain of acclivities, completely dark, displayed their round but unequal summits, and gave to the landscape that tint of majesty and gravity which must necessarily be found in all that is sublime, either as an element or a contrast. From distance to distance there are breaks in this third chain, through which the prospect extends, bounded by a pale silvery sky tinted with rosy clouds; and behind this magnificent ampitheatre, aspire two or three peaks of the distant Lebanon, rising like promontories in the sky, and receiving the luminous shower of the first solar rays suspended above them: they indeed seem so transparent, that we might fancy we saw through them the trembling light that they had hidden from us. Add to this spectacle, the serene and warm vault of the firmament, the limpid colour of the twilight, the depth of the shadows which characterize an Asiatic atmosphere," with other features of the present age. "Combine these accessories, and you have a most exact and faithful picture of the delicious plains of Zabulon, of Nazareth, of Saphora, and Tabor. Such a country, repeopled by a new Jewish nation, cultivated and watered by intelligent hands,—would again become the land of promise, if Providence restored it to a people with the political elements of repose and liberty."

Sepphoris, anciently Zippor, was the largest city in Palestine next to Jerusalem, in the time of Herod Agrippa. Being naturally fortified by its elevated and abrupt position, it became the bulwark of Galilee: at present it is a poor village. Tradition represents it, and without improbability, as the residence of Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary our Lord's mother. -On approaching Sepphoris, July 3, Dr. Clarke says, "We found the sun's rays, even at this early hour in the morning," apparently between six and seven, "almost insupportable: if we had not adopted the precaution of carrying umbrellas, it would have been impossible to continue the journey. The Cactus Ficus-Indicus, or prickly pear, which grows to a prodigious size in the Holy Land, as in Egypt, where it is used as a fence for the hedges and inclosures, sprouts luxuriantly among the rocks, displaying its gaudy blossoms among thorns, defying all human approach." When in Sepphoris, they went amidst the ruins of the church erected over the residence of Anna. "Here, protected by the stone roof of the building from the scorching rays of the sun, all our party assembled and

breakfasted." Then, eager to see a place so memorable as Nazareth, they once more encountered a Galilean sun."

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The ruins of the ancient city, Lamartine states, extended as far as a mile from Saphora; and there he stopped to halt in the middle of the day. "A fountain of excellent and inexhaustible water flows herefrom, (says the traveler), for the use of the inhabitants of two or three valleys. It is surrounded by some orchards of fig and pomegranate trees, under the shade of which we seated ourselves, and waited more than an hour before we could water our caravan,— -so numerous were the herds of cows and camels which the Arabian shepherds brought from all parts of the valley. Innumerable files of cattle and black goats wound across the plain, and the sides of the hills leading to Nazareth." This fountain must have existed in the days of our Lord; and here, we cannot doubt, he often rested in his solitary wanderings.-Nazareth is about six miles from Sepphoris. The approach to it, and the situation of the town, are well described by Buckingham.

"From the mountains above it, we had again the prospect of Mount Carmel, and the Bay of Accho; and reaching the summit of this lofty eminence, the valley and the town opened suddenly upon us. The hill was so steep and rugged, that we were obliged to descend it on foot; and if it were the precipice from which the men of Nazareth threatened to cast our Saviour headlong, it was a station well adapted for the execution of this work of death."

"Nazareth is situated in a deep valley, not at the top of a high hill, but rather on the side of a hill, nearer its base than its summit, facing the south-east, and having above it the rocky eminence which we had passed over in approaching it. The valley in which it stands is round and concave, as Maundrell has described it, and is itself the hollow of a high range of hills. [Richardson says 'it seems as if fifteen mountains met to form an inclosure for this delightful spot.'] The north-western of these hills separate it from the Plain of Zabulon, and the south-western from the Plain of Esdraelon; while on the north-east are the lands of Galilee, and on the south-west [rather south,] those of Samaria."

“All round this valley or basin of Nazareth (says Lamartine) were small clumps of the high thorny nopal, fig-trees deprived of their autumnal leaves, with green and yellow light-leaved pomegranates; the whole giving a freshness and a grace to the landscape." From his description of the neighbourhood of Cana, we may add "oaks and olive-trees and palms" to his enumeration of trees in the valley of Nazareth.

The Monks of Nazareth, who specify the locality of every thing by which they can interest travelers, show a place southward of the town, a high and perpendicular rock, from which they say the people purposed to precipitate our Lord; but it is more than a mile from the site of the synagogue, and on the other side of the basin, and does not agree with the representation of the Evangelist. It is indeed very rarely that the statements of the Monks, whether traditionary or not, need be taken into account when we have other means of judgment.

"Of far higher interest (says Mr. Carne) than traditions and relics, is the scenery around Nazareth. It is of the kind in which one would imagine the Saviour of mankind delighted to wander, and to withdraw himself when meditating on his great mission ;deep and secluded dells, covered with a wild verdure; silent and solemn paths, where overhanging rocks shut out all intrusion. No one can walk round Nazareth (he beautifully continues) without feeling thoughts like these enter his mind, while gazing often on many a sweet spot, traced perhaps by the Redeemer's footsteps, and embalmed by his prayers." Letters, VOL. 1. p. 290.

From this spot, the residence of our Lord till his great work commenced, we may well follow the information of travelers as to the places which we cannot doubt he would sometimes visit during that period. Is it possible, for instance, that he would not often ascend Mount Tabor, and sometimes also go to the commanding heights of Mount Carmel, hallowed by the sacrifice of Elijah? the one was in his immediate neighbourhood, and the other only a day's journey from Nazareth. The route to Carmel is delineated by the poetic pencil of Lamartine; for the nearer mountain, we shall first follow the more geographical account of Buckingham.

"It was nine o'clock (13 Jan.) when we left the foot of the hill to cross the valley, passing by some wells there; and in less than half an hour we ascended the hills on the south-east. Having reached the summit of these rocky and barren eminences, we began to descend on the other side of them. Arriving at their feet, we passed through a narrow defite, leading easterly between two steep hills; and again going up a rocky ascent, we reached its summit at eleven, having the high round eminence of Mount Tabor before us, rearing itself abruptly from the Plain of Esdraelon."

This mountain, according to Mr. Buckingham, does not exceed 1500 feet in height; but its insulated appearance, on an extensive plain, makes it a very striking object, both when seen near and at a distance. There is a characteristic representation of it in Finden, by Captain Fitzmaurice. It is conical till it reaches the summit, on which is an oval plain of about two furlongs across the circumference of the base is about four miles. The sides are rugged and precipitous, but beautifully adorned with oaks. and shrubs. In the time of Josephus it was strongly fortified. During the greater part of the summer, it is covered in the morning with thick clouds, which disperse towards mid-day. A strong wind blows the whole of the day; and in the night, dews fall more copious than are usually known in Syria.-This mountain is noted in early Jewish history; and tradition represents it as the scene of Christ's transfiguration; this however is not accordant with the narrative in the Gospels. Harm. p. 165. The view from it is grand and extensive.

"Placing my compass before me," says Mr. Buckingham, "we had on the north-west a view of the Mediterranean Sea, whose blue surface filled up an open space left by a downward bend in the outline of the western hills: to the west-north-west, a smaller portion of its waters were seen; and on the west again, the slender line of its distant