120 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



a half for a shilling. Sometimes the road is better 

 than any piece of macadamised road in the world ; 

 but sometimes it is worse, very much Averse indeed : 

 that depends upon the tide ; for in fine weather and 

 low tide it is a continuous stretch of the smoothest 

 and hardest sand imaginable. This is fortunate, as 

 the omnibuses have the barest apologies for springs, 

 though they trundle smoothly along, their wheels 

 just touching the rippling waves, as easily as if one 

 was driving over a damp billiard-table. When the 

 tide is high, and we have to plough through the fine 

 deep sand above, it is a very different matter ; or 

 when the Kishon and the Belus, the two streams we 

 have to cross on the way, flooded with winter rains, 

 burst all sandy barriers, and rush headlong into the 

 sea : then the journey may be in the highest degree 

 exciting, as the question whether they are fordable 

 or not becomes problematical, and sometimes the pas- 

 sengers resort to ferry-boats, towing the swimming 

 horses and floating omnibus after them; but these 

 experiences are confined to certain times of the year, 

 and usually the drive from Haifa to Acre along the 

 edge of the waves, with the cool sea-breeze fanning 

 one all the way, is as agreeable as can be imagined. 

 Then there is a carriage-road to Nazareth a distance 

 of twenty-two miles. This had to be constructed at a 

 cost of about 200, the whole of which expense was 

 borne by the German colony a fact which does not 

 prevent the natives, who contributed nothing towards 



