20 BASHAN. 



garment better fitted for Pall Mall than Palestine, had" 

 stuffed it into a saddlebag, whence it emerged, naturally 

 sadly creased. We found its owner severely reprimanding 

 the carelessness of the dragoman ; but the effect of the 

 rebuke was rather lessened by the untimely mirth excited 

 in Williams by the forlorn appearance of the once shapely 

 coat. 



In the course of the evening the Bimbashi sent us a 

 sheep. 



March 16th. — We broke up camp early, and rode down 

 the glen under the town, through a ruinous street, passing- 

 tombs and some broken columns below the modern 

 houses ; the bottom of the glen was well irrigated and 

 cultivated. We soon turned up a lateral ravine, opening 

 on the left, and followed it nearly to its head, through 

 scenery which was quite savage for this part of Syria. Big 

 boulders lay about, and a stream foamed and brawled 

 amongst them. A steep climb led us up to a broad grassy 

 tableland, forming the southern watershed of the Jabbok 

 valley. We came occasionally on circular ponds, exactly 

 like those to be seen on the South Downs, of which the 

 scenery constantly reminded us. The road was continu- 

 ally up or down-hill, till we left on the right the track to 

 Amman, and sweeping round a brow to the north, gradu- 

 ally descended into a broad oval basin, environed by hills — 

 the greater part sown with corn, although no village or 

 inhabitants were visible. The drainage of this curious 

 hollow, which is called by the natives El-Bukaah, or the 

 Little Plain, finds its way through a narrow opening to 

 the Jabbok. 



Having passed a ruin, apparently that of a small build- 

 ing, surrounded by a courtyard, we traversed the whole 

 length of the basin (about eight miles), and mounted the 

 ridge dividing it from the Jabbok valley. The country 



