NAZARETH TO TIBERIAS. 19,5 
After we had passed Turan, a small plaiita- chap. 
tion of olives afforded us a temporary shelter : ^ / . 
and without this, the heat was greater than, we 
could have endured. Having rested an hour, 
taking coffee, and smoking tobacco, as usual, 
with the Arabs of our party, we continued our 
journey. The earth was covered with thistles 
in such numerous variety, that a complete col- 
lection of them would be an interesting acqui- 
sition for the botanist. A plant, which we 
mistook for the Jerusalem artichoke, was seen 
everywhere, with a purple head, rising to the 
height of five or six feet. The scorching rays 
of the sun put it out of our power to collect 
specimens of all these ; no one of the party 
having sufficient resolution to descend from his 
horse, and abandon his umbrella, even for an 
instant. We distinctly perceived that several of 
these plants have not been described by any 
traveller. In the examination of the scanty 
acicular radiating fibres of zeolite, carbonated lime, &c. &c. in amygda- 
loidal rocks. The author witnessed a similar appearance, upon as 
large a scale, in the Isle of Canna, in the Hebrides. The mag-nitude 
of Pertain phaenoniena ui cryslalUzatioji sometimes leads the mind to 
doubt the nature of the process whence they have resulted. Sausstire's 
polished mountain, near -S^. Bernard in the Alps, is an instance of 
this kind. We are at no loss to explain the cause of lustre on one of 
the lateral planes of a small crystal, but cannot so readily conecive 
that the side of a mountain may have been thus modified. 
