MEMOIR OF BtTRCKHARDT. 5} 



was sufficiently tranquil to allow him to proceed 

 with safety. He took with him a Damascene guide, 

 who had been seventeen times to Mecca, was well 

 acquainted with the Bedouins, inured to fatigue, 

 and not indisposed to favour the object of the 

 traveller. 



At Berak he found two saltpetre manufactories : 

 the article is procured by boiling the saline earth 

 dug up among the ruins of the town and in the 

 neighbouring plain. In finding out the productive 

 spots, the inhabitants are guided by the appearance 

 of the ground in the morning before sun-rise ; and 

 wherever it then appears most wet with dew, the 

 soil beneath is found impregnated with salt. Pass- 

 ing along the eastern limit of the Ledja, he pene- 

 trated as far as Bostra, formerly the capital of 

 Arabia Provincia, and still, including the ruins, 

 the largest town in the Haouran. There are the 

 remains of a splendid mosque, embellished with 

 numerous elegant arabesque ornaments, and of a 

 temple with some large Corinthian pillars, equalling 

 in beauty of execution the finest of those at Baalbec 

 or Palmyra. Of the vineyards, for which this city 

 was famous even in the days of Moses, not a vestige 

 remains. 



Proceeding in a westerly direction, Burckhardt 

 traversed the whole plain as far as the borders of 

 Djolan, near the lake Tabaria. On this route he 

 passed Mezareib, a small village with a castle and a 

 pool of the clearest water, which is supposed to have 

 been the site of Astaroth (Deut. i. 4., Josh. ix. 10), 



