18 BASHAN. 



an enthusiastic 'bonjour' from a Turkish lieutenant on 

 leave from Es-Salt, who was not a little pleased to display 

 his slight knowledge of French. 



Our track turned southward, along the opposite side of 

 the valley to that which we had ridden up the previous 

 day. The ground was bright with scarlet anemones, 

 which tinted the hillsides a mile off; other wild flowers 

 grew in almost equal profusion, although they did not 

 produce such a striking distant effect. 



At last we turned sharply to the left, and began to 

 climb, by steep zigzags, the bare hillside. At every 

 corner of the road we extended our horizon ; the higher 

 ranges of Central Palestine rose behind the hills which 

 dominate the Jordan valley, and the Dead Sea came into 

 view in the south. After a considerable ascent the path 

 entered a glen, and wound round the hillsides at some 

 height above the dry torrent-bed. During our midday 

 halt our sportsmen went off in pursuit of partridges, but 

 came back empty-handed. On reaching the head of the 

 glen, we faced more zigzags, up which the laden mules 

 climbed laboriously ; they led us to a high brow, pro- 

 jecting from the main range, which commanded the 

 finest view we had seen in Syria. We overlooked the 

 whole Jordan valley from the Lake of Tiberias to the 

 Dead Sea. A corner only of the former was visible, but 

 we could see the whole basin of the great salt lake, and 

 trace out the long peninsula of El-Lisan, with the far- 

 off southern shore beyond it, through the heat-haze which 

 always rests on these strange waters. 



The hillsides became more broken, and the dwarf oaks 

 which clothed them added to their picturesque features. 

 Circling round to the south of the highest portion of 

 Jebel-Jilad, we crossed two of its spurs with scarcely 

 any fall in the road between them. From the second 



