of the antiquarian. It contains a large number of remarkable 
mounds, generally of the form of a truncated cone ; their 
sides steep and regular, as if scarped, and occasionally strewn 
with ruins of a primeval type. The cup-shaped mound of 
Tell el-lvady I have already mentioned ; I observed several 
very large ones not far from Bethshean, and there are others 
dotting the plain of Jericho. It is worthy of note that mounds 
of a similar shape occur at intervals along the great Syrian 
valley up to Antioch, and there are several on the plain of 
Damascus. Some of them are unquestionably artificial — that, 
for example, at Emesa, on which the famous temple of the 
Sun stood, and that on the site of Loadicea ad Ltbanum, 
a few miles farther south. What are these mounds ? By 
whom were they constructed ? Do they point btck to a 
primeval people, whose name and history have a, Ike been 
lost ? Excavation might reveal the secret, and bring 1 to light 
some strange relics of a prehistoric age. On ore of the 
mounds near Damascus I discovered a slab of limestone con- 
taining the figure of an Assyrian priest in relief, now I believe, 
in the British Museum. 
Fords of the Jordan. 
16. The fords of the Jordan have always been important in 
connection with the history of the country. A fil’d, called 
Vadum Jacob by William of Tyre, was an importait pass in 
the time of the Crusades, and was probably at the place 
where the “ Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters ” now spans the 
stream. The origin of the name is unknown; bu, perhaps, 
the ford was confounded with the Succoth, wlere Jacob 
crossed the Jordan. Near the place where the upier Jordan 
falls into the Sea of Galilee, the stream can be eroded almost 
anywhere ; and here the multitudes that followed our Lord 
from Capernaum were able to pass over to where le fed the 
five thousand, on the side of the plateau of Basian (Mark 
vi. 32, seq.). 
17. The first ford on the southern division of tin Jordan is 
about half a mile below the lake, where the ruins o: a Homan 
bridge lie. It is on the road leading from ''iberias to 
Gadura, and it was probably here our Lord crossed when Ho 
went from Galilee to Judaea “ by the farther side J Jordan” 
(Mark x. 1). About five miles below it, is Jivr-ti-Mejdmia, 
“ the bridge of the meetings,” now the only passablj bridge on 
the river. Over it runs the old caravan route from Damascus 
to Egypt, by Gadara. Probably a Roman bridge eisted here, 
but the present structure is Saracenic. At Sucdth, where 
