‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 329 
such as one finds on the coasts of Spain, Greece, Italy, and 
the western parts of North Africa, especially in Morocco. 
This zone is rather narrow in Palestine, and gradually dis- 
appears at Jerusalem, while east of Bethany it is replaced 
by the steppe vegetation of the interior of Asia. 
Passing by the ancient well of Bir Egyub (well of Job), 
the ravine of Wadi Ali, and the ruins of an old mosque, we 
reached the ridge of the hills. The character of the country 
remained the same—dazzling white rocks separated from each 
other by thorny bushes, with here and there ruins and dilapi- 
dated houses appearing among the stones. Cliffs were rare, 
but on the other hand one saw many long and _ perfectly 
smooth rocky flats on the hillsides. 
Countless eagles and vultures were soaring overhead, but 
we noticed but few birds among the bushes, only very occa- 
sional partridges which ran swiftly up the slopes, and after 
travelling for two hours we tried a little beat along the ridge 
with our Arabs. 
There we had a splendid view over a maze of valleys and 
ravines, all of the same type, with a true Mediterranean flora 
very like that of the Zante mountains. Far to the east we 
saw the greyish-yellow ridges and heights of the plateau on 
which Jerusalem lies, and the commencement of a very 
different looking range of hills in the interior of the country. 
It was not very pleasant walking among the innumerable 
rocks, stones, and the long thorns of the almost impenetrable 
bushes ; so as we found no partridges, and could not get 
near the large birds of prey which were cruising about in all 
directions, we speedily returned to the caravan. 
After crossing the ridge the country grew still more 
desolate, even the bushes gave place to dry grass, and the 
picturesque rocks to loose stones, while before us lay a 
wide valley, down to which the road wound in serpentine 
curves. 
