64 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



These sands are effecting a steady and enormous change along the 

 coast. It is difficult to reach what is left of Ascalon, which remains on an 

 insulated patch of rocky ground by the sea, completely cut off inland. 

 Little of it is left unsmothered. Ashdod is undergoing the same fate. 

 Gaza retreats inland in front of the arenaceous sea, and it is only at 

 intervals, or by ascending some eminence which is rarely met with, that 

 one obtains even a view of the Mediterranean. This was to me a keen 

 disappointment, and I sighed for the reality of a cliff-girt coast like that 

 of my home in north-western Donegal. 



In and about the Gaza olive groves several birds familiar at home 

 abounded. Others occurred on the plain hard by. It was refreshing to 

 hear their well-known voices in this strange and inhospitable land. There 

 were English sparrows, swallows, buntings, goldfinches, black redstarts, 

 chaffinches, stonechats, willow-wrens and chiffchaffs, blackbirds, and 

 hooded crows. Other birds seen were Egyptian kites, buzzards (common 

 species), ' boomey ' or little southern owl, red-breasted Cairo swallows, 

 pelicans, dunlins, calandra and crested larks, bulbuls, pied chats, and 

 Menetries' wheatear. 



At an estuary about four miles south of Gaza, and up a flat widy 

 leading to it, I obtained several good plants. This would be capital 

 ground to botanize at a later season. The following are the most in- 

 teresting : Brassica Tournefortii, Gou. ; Cratcegus azarolus, Linn. ; Neurada 

 procumbens, Linn.; Ceratonia siliqua, Linn.; Astragalus aleppicus, 

 Boiss.; A. macrocarpus, D.C. (not in fruit); Medicago laciniata, All.; 

 Ononis natrix, Linn., var. stenophylla; Anagyris fcetida, Linn.; Acacia 

 albida, Del.; Prosopis slepkaniana, Willd.; Xanthium strumarium, Linn.; 

 Artemisia monospernta, Del.; Centaurea araneosa, Boiss.; C. pallescens, 

 Del.; Atractylis prolifera, Boiss.; Linaria Hcelava, Forsk.; Anchusa 

 cegyptiaca, Lehm.; Prasium majus, Linn.; Andrachne aspera, Linn.; 

 Ficus sycomorus, Linn.; Ricinus communis, Lmn.; Boerhavia verticillata, 

 Poir. ; Plantago albicans, Linn.; Euphorbia peploides, Gou.; Emex spinosus, 

 Camp.; Salsola inermis, Forsk.; Cyperus sckosnoides, Griseb.; C. rotundus, 

 Linn.; Fimbristylis dichotoma, Rott., and Pennisetum cenchroides, Rich. 

 Some of these, as the castor-oil, the little anomalous desert Neurada, and 

 the tropical Boerhavia, point to the great heat of Gaza. 



The trees about Gaza are chiefly date-palms, olives, sycamore fig, 



