‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST? 377 
especially as Herr Rath said that while riding down one of 
the ravines which led to the Jordan he had seen a small stag 
with short horns. 
The second part of the wood was composed of high leafy 
trees of an almost tropical character and a nearly impene- 
trable undergrowth ; but there were such numbers of tracks 
that I could not resist trying a beat just for luck, so I posted 
the gentlemen in the opening by the best-trodden runs, and 
got the Turkish guards and some of the servants to go 
through the wood under the direction of my jiger. In such 
undergrowth an orderly line of beaters was out of the question, 
and we very soon saw that all attempts to drive game out of 
these thickets would be useless. The only birds which I saw 
in this wood were a pair of Stone-Curlews and several 
Kites. 
We now went back to our horses, had them saddled, and 
rode back to the edge of the plateau by the same way. We 
had already noticed from below some peculiar dark clouds 
whirling up into the sky, but could not make out what they 
were ; but on getting to the top of the plateau we saw a very 
remarkable spectacle, for the whole steppe from the Jordan to 
the foot of the eastern border hills was enveloped in a cloud of 
smoke with bright flames shooting out here and there from the 
black vapours. The country through which we had ridden in 
the morning was now a sea of smoke and fire, for the grass of 
the steppe burnt with incredible rapidity, and every minute 
we could see how the fire was advancing by the columns of 
smoke that were following us up. 
Jussuf, a Turkish cavalry officer born in Turkestan, a 
vigorous grey-bearded old man, with a leather-thonged whip 
slung round his wrist as a sign of authority, rode in front to 
show the best way. It was a splendid gallop straight across 
country over the steppe, pursued by the great fire—a scene 
not to be witnessed in Europe, but only in the vast tracts of 
