'A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 383 



view of the beautiful mountains beyond the miserable country 

 around us. At last we reached the foot of Mount Tabor, 

 which is conical in form, everywhere equally steep, quite 

 isolated from all the other heights, and has its slopes up to 

 the very summit covered with rocks, loose stones, and stunted 

 oaks. The road which winds up it passes through a wretched 

 little village of stone-built hovels, and is formed of rocks so 

 bare and slanting that one can hardly understand how horses 

 manage to get up it, and the evergreen bushes and low gnarled 

 oaks that grow among the stones are not very ornamental. 

 The type of the vegetation is precisely that of the Mediter- 

 ranean coasts, the far more interesting Asiatic flora having 

 been already left behind. 



As the finale to our long journey, the ride up the high 

 mountain of Tabor was no great pleasure, but slipping and 

 stumbling, our tired horses at last reached the outer walls of 

 the little convent. I was so fatigued that I could hardly keep 

 my eyes open, for I was still suffering severely from the 

 effects of the fever. The Grand Duke also became unwell 

 during the long ride ; and in the evening had a still more 

 violent attack of the same sort as that which I had to endure 

 the previous day. 



A tent had been sent on ahead up Mount Tabor, but the 

 rest of the caravan remained at Nazareth, for we could not 

 have got many of the hard-worked mules up alive. In this 

 tent we lay down to sleep until dinner-time. "We had all at 

 once left the heavy oppressive atmosphere of the Jordan, and 

 the regions lying below the level of the sea, for fresh moun- 

 tain air ; a somewhat cool evening and a sharp breeze 

 succeeded the heat of the day. 



From the summit of Mount Tabor there was a glorious view. 

 To the south-east lay the broad plains of the Jordan, swathed 

 in the vapours of the heated air, with mountains bordering 

 them on either side the western, grey-green, with countless 



