1 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. 



Afte'r 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. 



