530 THE JOUKNEY TO PALESTINE 



After the sterile desolation of Lebanon, the beauty of 

 Damascus (October 4), set in its velvet green, was doubly 

 striking. Owing to the illness of Captain Washington, they 

 had to stay four days in their hotel in ' the street called straight ' 

 ' which is crooked and not 15 feet broad in parts ' and to 

 give up the ascent of Mt. Hermon. Indeed there was much 

 sickness in the city, especially among the Turkish troops, 

 no doubt aggravated by the appalling conditions after the 

 massacre, which took place the day before our travellers 

 arrived, with a destruction estimated at five millions sterling 

 and a slaughter of some 5000 persons. ' Euins piled 4 feet 

 deep in every lane, heaps of mutilated corpses, bones stench ! 

 burnt books, pictures ' such is the impression of a visit to the 

 Christian quarter under official escort. 



On the return to Beyrout through the Anti-Lebanon country 

 comes a note for the benefit of Darwin, who had asked him 

 to keep a look out for special markings to compare with those 

 of the zebra and other of the horse tribe : ' Saw two asses with 

 forked end to shoulder stripe,' matching an earlier note at 

 Syra : ' Saw 4 asses with banded legs both fore and hind down 

 nearly to hoof.' 



After three days' rest at Beyrout they left on October 14 

 for Jaffa. At Sidon Hooker paid a flying visit to M. Gaillardot, 

 chief medical officer of the Turkish Government, and collated 

 his botanical knowledge, which, not having been rubbed up 

 for many years, was not very serviceable. At Haifa also a 

 short excursion was made to the famous convent of Mar Elias. 



Leaving Jaffa on the 16th, they visited Jerusalem, the 

 Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Samaria, and Nazareth, the Lake of 

 Galilee, Mt. Carmel, and so again to Beyrout. 



The rounded steppe-like hills of the great limestone plateau 

 between Eamleh and Jerusalem appeared ' very bare, except 

 of cultivated terraces scarcely distinguishable at this season ' 

 of entire drought. Considering the * good light red soil, 

 admirable for Vine and Mulberry ' into which the rock de- 

 composed, ' in Lebanon every inch of this ground (except 

 rock) would have been cultivated and most productive.' The 

 only superiority appeared in the building of the houses. 



