190 
THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP. fi'QYj^i scorching beams capable of baking bread, 
and actually of dressing meat ' : into these caves 
we crept, not only for the purpose of restoring 
the umbrella, but also to profit by the op- 
portunity thus offered of unpacking our ther- 
mometers, and of ascertaining the temperature 
of the atmosphere. It was now twelve o'clock. 
The mercury, in a subterraneous recess, per- 
fectly shaded, the scale being placed so as not 
to touch the rock, remained at one hundred 
degrees of Fahrenheit. As to making any ob- 
servation in the sun's rays, it was impossible ; 
no one of the party had courage to wait with 
the thermometer a single instant in such a 
situation. 
Intense 
Heat. 
Basaltic 
Pheno- 
mena. 
Their 
Origin ex 
plained. 
Along this route, particularly between Cana 
and Turan, we observed basaltic phaenomena. 
The extremities of columns, prismatically formed, 
penetrated the surface of the soil, so as to 
render our journey rough and unpleasant. These 
marks of regular or of irregular crystallitation, 
generally denote the vicinity of a bed of water 
lying beneath their level. The traveller, passing 
()) We afterwards ate bread which had been thus baked, in a camp 
oi Djezzar's troops, in the Plain of Esdrueloti; and the first Lieutenant 
of the Ronndus frigate ate bacon so dressed, in Aboukir. 
