clarkeV tkavels* 
were gone in search of plants and shells, a powerful and most 
offensive smell, as from dead bodies, which we had before expe¬ 
rienced more than once, in approaching the town, caused us t© 
hesitate w hether we should proceed or return. At this mo¬ 
ment the author observed the remains of bodies in the sand ; 
and Captain Culverhouse, being in doubt w hether they belong¬ 
ed to human bodies or to those of cattle, removed a part of 
the sand with his sword, and uncovered part of a hand and 
arm. Upon this, calling to our friends, we told them what w e 
had discovered f and returning to the consul’s house, asked 
him (he cause of the revolting spectacle we had witnessed. He 
told us, that these were the remains of bodies carried thither 9 
during the late plague, for interment ; but that the sea, fre¬ 
quently removing the sand which covered them, caused them 
to be thus exposed ; and he cautioned us in future against 
walking that way, as the infection might possibly be retained, 
not only by those bodies, but by the clothes and other tilings 
there deposited. 
Joppa , called also Japha , and now universally Jaffa , owes 
all the circumstances of its celebrity, as the principal port of 
Judaea, to its situation with regard to Jerusalem. As a station 
for vessels, its harbour is one of the worst in the Mediterra¬ 
nean. Ships generally anchor about a mile from the town, ta 
avoid the shoals and rocks of the place. 5 * In ancient times it 
was the only place resorted to as a seaport, in all Judaea, 
Hither Solomon ordered the materials for the temple to be 
brought from Mount Libanus, previous to their conveyance by 
land to Jerusalem, A tradition is preserved, that here JMoafo 
lived and built his ark. Pliny describes it as older than, the 
deluge.f In his time they pretended to exhibit the marks of 
the chains with wich Andromeda was fastened to a rock : the 
skeleton of the sea utpnster, to whom she had been exposed, 
was brought to Rome by Scaurus, and carefully preserved J— 
* u Minus tutus est, et non nisi parvanavigia admittit Nec etiam Celebris est, 
quoniam propter portus incommoditatem baud multae raerces illuc advehuntur.” 
&uaresm Eluc. T. S. tom. II. p. 5. Antv. 1639. 
■f “ Joppe Phoenicum, antiquior terrarum inundatione.” Hist. Nat, lib. v. c. 13. 
tom. I. p. .262. L. Bat. 1635. 
t Julius Solinus in Polynistor. cap. 37. Norimb. 1777. The ribs were forty feet 
In length; and from the account given of the animal, it was probably a whale. Vid 
Abulensis in cap: 14. Exod. quaest. 11. Quaresm. Eluc. T. S. tom. II. p. 5. Antv. 
1639. Strab. Geog. lib. i. et xvi. Pomponius Mela, lib. i. cap. 11, &c. Thus we have 
evidence o! whales in this sea, without having recourse to the testimony of sacred •• 
scripture. Mr Briant, however, in his 41 Observations upon some passages in scrip¬ 
ture, which the enemies of religion have thought most obnoxious,” &c. 4to. pp. 243 9 
244, 245, is of the opposite opinion. But if he be right with respect to the single 
■whalthe MedHmaaean, hOTrcsme that fish, from earliest times,••fco-havefeja 
