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Te T;/^“£o P ‘, Ve “ r 1 NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1875. 
Volume 4, Number 5. 
IT Chatham 8c. (C'l(ytlull|Mqr.) 
Fbr Foret t and .Hr mm. 
THE FISHER MAID. 
OV MRS. EUNICE B. LAMBERTON. 
rT^HE wind was calm, the tide was low, 
JL Thu galls all flapping hung. 
And crabs conic sidling o'er the «aud, 
The tangled kelp among. 
With naked feet a Usher maid, 
Kog-browncd as Jolly tor. 
Sped Joyfully to clutch ihe craft 
Aground npou the bar. 
The waves in wrinkles crept along, 
Like time to childhood'a view, 
When days are weeks and weeks arc* months 
And pleasures ever new. 
With lengthened Angers on they came, 
Grasping the murky shore. 
While peril to the flaber maid 
Was all the song they bore. 
And billows rose and billows fell 
With seething, foaming crest. 
When "Hard to leowBrdl” roac the cry, 
With "tack to sou-son-west." 
In white capped glory wild they tossed 
A lift to sheet and spar— 
No longer wna the "Mary Ann" 
Aground upon the bar. 
Enclasped 'mid winding shroud of foam, 
A waif the breakers bore 
To where the tawny fisherman 
Bent, dragging nets ashore; 
And dames in gowns of Scottish plaid, 
With 'kerchiefs white and bine, 
GosBlppcd of neighbor's weal or woe, 
And vowed the gossip true. 
Now often when the tide Is out. 
And sails hang flapping low, 
When crabs come sidling up the sand 
Where tangled sea weeds flow, 
The sailors see a phantom maid 
Kog browned as Jolly tar, 
Speed Joyfully to clutch the craft 
Agyouudupon the bar 
Rochet ter, X. 1'.. March, Ib7S. 
for Xoreet and Stream. 
$ou i f to Jericho. 
CAMPING AT THE POOLS OF SOLO- 
MON— BATHING IN THE DEAD SEA- 
FALLING AMONG THIEVES— FISH- 
ING IN THE JORDAN— EXPEDIENTS 
OF AN ANGLER. 
BY C. A. KINUSBUItY. 
I T wa9 on the 17lh of May, 1807, as I find on referring 
to inv note book, that we tamed our backs upon the 
city of Jerusalem, and started on our trip to the Dead Sea, 
the Jordan, and Jericho. Mounted on good horses, and 
taking only such articles iu the shape of baggage as were 
absolutely essential for our comfortable shelter and subsis- 
tence, wc were well prepared to carry out our intended 
plun of making this side trip with as much dispatch ns 
possible, consistent with careful observation. We did not 
take the ancient and usual route of travelers, by the wuy 
of Bethany, but turned our horses’ heads towards Etam, 
und just as the sun set we pitched our tents by tho pools of 
Solomon. 
What a place to camp! Tradition makes this tho “gur- 
den enclosed," where Solomon made his kingly experiment 
in horticulture, of which he says: — “I planted me vine- 
yards, I ir.ude me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees 
in them of all kinds of fruit; I made me pools of waler to 
water therewith the wood that briugelh forth trees." I 
will not stop to moralize, but it must bo admitted that 
whatever may have beou the result of his experiment in 
other respects, these three magnificent pools, which remain 
in a good x stale of preservation to the present time, uro 
worthy of their royal builder, The most easterly one is 
about six hundred feet long, two hundred wide, and fifty 
deep. It would llout the Great Eastern, or the largest ship 
of war that ever ploughed the ocean. 
Taking an evening bath iu these gigantic bath tubs, we 
enjoyed a night of most refreshing sleep, and early the 
next morning started for the old city of Hebron, visiting 
the valley of Eschol, aud taking our noonday lunch by the 
side of a cool spring, shaded by the famous terebiuth 
known a9 "Abraham’s Oak." It is a maguificent tree, 
twenty-three fert in girth, aud if it be not the identical 
tree under which the patriarch communed with his Cre- 
ator, and entertained heavenly messengers as his guests, it 
i9 at least the only surviving representative of the oaks of 
Mamrc. We found the vineyards hero most thrifty and 
luxuriunt, still producing mammoth clusters of fruit, rival- 
ing those marvelous buuchcs borne away upon the shoul- 
ders of the spies iu tho time of Caleb and Joshua. From 
this spot to Hebron is about two miles, and we felt that 
every step we took was upon ground trodden by patriarch?, 
and prophets. Here "l9auc went out to meditate in the 
field at eventide, and lifted up his eyes and saw his beau- 
tiful cousiu Rebckah, from Mesopotamia," and he took her 
into his mother, Sarah’s tent, aud she becuine his wife. 
It was just here, too, that green-eyed jealousy drove Hagar 
into the wilderness, and he soon becomes "a wild man, 
whose hand will be against every man, and every man’s 
hand against him." How literally the angel’s prophecy has 
been fulfilled, and how exactly Ishmael’s descendants have 
maintained their peculiar disposition aud habits, the East- 
ern traveler knows too well. 
On our way to the city we discovered a wolf feasting on 
the carcass of a mule. He was a fierce looking animal, of 
reddish brown color, and about the size of our grey wolf. 
Ho made good his escape, although with a rifle he could 
have been secured as a zoological specimen. Wc exam- 
ined the principal objects of interest in the ancient city, 
built "seven years before Zoan, in Egypt." The chief ob- 
ject of interest to the traveler is the cavo of Machpelah, 
containing the sacred dust of Abraham, Isaac, aud Jucob. 
As a description of this most interesting repository of tho 
illustrious dead does not come within the scope of this 
communication, I would merely state that it is most zeal- 
ously guarded night and day by a set of fanatical and In- 
solent Moslem soldiers. No Christian dog is allowed to 
enter the cave, under penalty of death. The writer, in his 
auxioty to gain a certain point of observation, was threat- 
ened with instant death if betook another step. Not wish- 
ing to remain at this old city for un indefinite period of 
time, even though my bones might be laid so near the tomb 
of the patriarchs; I very quietly but most unhesitatingly 
withdrew to a place of safety. On our return to El Burak 
—as the pools of Solomou are now called — we started up 
some fine covies of the common partridge of Palestine, 
which is the Greek Perdix utxalilu. It i9 a beautiful bird, 
about the size of our ruffed grouse. Its legs and beak are 
a bright red color, its flight is swift and strong, and it is so 
wary in its habits as to render it difficult to shoot. When 
ia season, I am told it is a great delicacy. Some of tho 
Emeers and chiefs of tho country hunt this bird with the 
hawk, and keep up' the ancient sport of falconry with no 
small degree of pride. 
Tired and hungry, wo reached our tents in the dusk of 
the evening, and spent our second night at tho pools of 
Solomon. The next day we visited Bethlehem, and at 
about nine in the evening pitched our tents on the bank of 
the Kedron, under the towering walls of Mar Saba. What 
a world of interest guthers about Bethlehem, with its man- 
ger, its magi, and shepherds. Its history^in moral and 
religious aspect, is without a parallel. gM influence of 
the great event which transpired there s^letwo thousand 
years ago girdles the world and extends through time. 
We must not stop longer in the city of David, however 
strong tho temptation.' The road from here to Mar Saba 
passed over high rocky hills and through deep, dark val- 
leys. It was here that the fair and ruddy son of Jesse the 
Betklohemite kept his father's sheep. With these very 
pebbles he practiced his simple sling, and attained that un- 
erring skill iu the use of his favorite weapon. It was 
among these hills and vales that he performed those brave 
exploits of his youth which he related before the kiug of 
Israel in order to convince him of his ability to meet and 
bring down to the dust tho insolent champion of the Phil- 
istiues. Hear his story:— “And David said unto Saul, thy 
servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion and 
a bear and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out 
after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth, 
and when he rose against me I caught him by his beard 
and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the 
lion and tho hear." The triumphant result proved that his 
confidence was well founded. 
At Mar Saba we found our guard of six ragged, suspi- 
cious looking Bedouin soldiers, engaged by our dragoman 
before lcaviug Jerusalem, to escort us from this point to 
Jericho, and to protect us from the hostile Arabs who live 
east of tho Jordau, aud who do not scruple to rob the un- 
protected traveler. They were armed with long guns and 
spears. The following morning we were hospitably enter- 
tained by the monks of the convent, who took us through 
this ancient and singular structure, showing us the chapel, 
with its costly decorations, and many other objects of great 
interest, including the vault containing some fourteen thou- 
sand skulls of martyred monks. No traveler is admitted 
without a letter from the Greek patriarch at Jerusalem, 
and no woman is ever allowed to enter the convent upon 
any conditions. There is an interesting tradition connected 
with the location of this convent castle. Saint Sabu9, the 
founder, was a man of remarkable sauctlty, and at un early 
age devoted himself to conventual life. After traveling 
over Palestine he came to this wild and dreary spot A. D. 
483 in search of a suitable place where he might find re- 
ligious retirement from the bustling world. He discovered 
a cave in tho rocky ravine of the Kedron, which he con- 
cluded would suit his purpose. Upon examination, he 
found it to be the den of a lion, and in actual possession of 
the fierce monarch of the wilderness. The saint, it is 6aid, 
very politely gave him to understand that he wanted to 
occupy the premises for his own headquarters. The ani- 
mal quietly took the hint, and left his lair to its new occu- 
pant and its higher destiny. This cave, which is now one 
of the cells of the convent, is pointed out to the traveler as 
tho one formerly occupied by the distinguished founder. 
No one can form any just conception of this religious fort- 
ress, with its lofty, frowning walls and its wild and deso- 
late surroundings, high, rocky cliffs, and deep, dark glens, 
without seeing it with his own eyes. 
The rock pigeon ( Columba tchimpiri ) was very numerous 
along this part of the Kedron, making its nests and rear- 
ing its young in the caves aud fissures high up the precipi- 
tous rocks. There were also flocks of a species of grakle, 
with bright yellow wings, which the moults feed with daily 
care, receiving in pay for their kindness genuine notes of 
melody. Among their pets are three foxes, which come 
every cvenjffc and bark under the convent walls for their 
supper, afidra wolf, which comes down from the wilder- 
ness aiidofosses the ravine of the Kedron to get his daily 
ration^tSf breach which is lowered down by ouo of the 
mouk9. During the day we started up one of the foxes, 
which was/fmilar to our red fox, and seemed to rival him 
in speed. 
The ride from hereto the Dead Sea, which was over a 
dreary waste of sanefy plains and hills, occupies some five 
or six hours. The sun was intensely hot, and we suffered 
greatly from tho burning heat and excessive fatigue. Only 
a few days before an adventurous lady belonging to an 
English party died from the same causes while passing over 
this route. The neglect of our drngomuu to take along a 
sufficient quantity of water greatly added to our distress. 
Our limited supply was soon exhausted, and no good water 
could be obtained until we reached the Jordan At length 
we cumo to a rock-hewn rcsorvoir, some fifteen feet in 
depth. Tke water was of most questionable appearance, 
but if it had been as pure os that of Jacob's well we had 
I 
