‘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 
