From Tiberias to Nazareth the traveller has to encounter an almost uninterrupted ascent. The village of Caber Sabet first attracts his attention by its architectural remains, indicating the existence of an ancient building, which must have had marble columns and a magnificent portico. He soon afterwards reaches Soak el Khan,—a place chiefly celebrated for a weekly market, where every description of commodity in use among the people is collected for sale. It also presents the ruins of a Saracenic fort of a square shape, with circular towers at the angles and in the centre of each wall.

In pursuing this route we have Mount Tor, or Tabor, on the left hand, rising in solitary majesty from the Plain of Esdraëlon. Its appearance has been described by some authors as that of a half-sphere, while to others it suggests the idea of a cone with its point struck off. According to Mr Maundrell, the height is such as to require the labour of an hour to reach the summit; where is seen a level area of an oval figure, extending about two furlongs in length and one in breadth. It is enclosed with trees on all sides except the south, and is most fertile and delicious. Having been anciently surrounded with walls and trenches, there are remains of considerable fortifications at the present day. Burckhardt says, a thick wall, constructed of large stones, may be traced quite round the summit, close to the edge of the precipice; on several parts of which are relics of bastions. The area too is overspread with the ruins of private dwellings, built of stone with great solidity.

Pococke assures us that it is one of the finest hills he ever beheld, being a rich soil that produces excellent herbage, and most beautifully adorned with groves and clumps of trees. The height he calculates to be about two miles, making allowance for the winding ascent; but he adds, that others have imagined the same path

ceived that, whenever the ashes of the burnt corn were stirred by thrusting a stick among them, sparks were even seen glowing throughout the heap; and a piece of wood left there became charred."

to be not less than four miles. Hasselquist conjectures that it is a league to the top, the whole of which may be accomplished without dismounting, a statement amply confirmed by the experience of Van Egmont and Heyman. These travellers relate that "this mountain, though somewhat rugged and difficult, we ascended on horseback, making several circuits round it, which took up about three quarters of an hour. It is one of the highest in the whole country, being thirty stadia, or about four English miles. And it is the most beautiful we ever saw with regard to verdure, being every where decorated with small oak-trees, and the ground universally enamelled with a variety of plants and flowers. There are great numbers of red partridges, and some wild-boars; and we were so fortunate as to see the Arabs hunting them. We left, but not without reluctance, this delightful place, and found at the bottom of it a mean village, called Deboura, or Tabour, a name said to be derived from the celebrated Deborah mentioned in the book of Judges."

But this mountain derives the largest share of its celebrity from the opinion entertained among Christians since the days of Jerome, that it was the scene of a memorable event in the history of our Lord. On the eastern part of the hill are the remains of a strong castle; and within the precincts of it is the grotto, in which are three altars in memory of the three tabernacles that St Peter proposed to build, and where the Latin friars always perform mass on the anniversary of the Transfiguration. It is said there was a magnificent church built here by Helena, which was the cathedral when this town was made a bishop's see. On the side of the hill they show a church in a grot, where they say Christ charged his disciples not to tell what things they had seen till he should be glorified.

It is very doubtful, however, whether this tradition be well founded, or whether it has not, as Mr Maundrell and other writers suspect, originated in the misinterpretation of a very common Greek phrase. Our Saviour is

said to have taken with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them into a high mountain "apart ;" from which it has been rather hastily inferred that the description must apply to Tabor, the only insulated and solitary hill in the neighbourhood. We may remark with the traveller just named, that the conclusion may possibly be true, but that the argument used to prove it seems incompetent; because the term apart" most likely relates to the withdrawing and retirement of the persons here spoken of, and not to the situation of the mountain. In fact, it means nothing more than that our Lord and his three disciples betook themselves to a private place for the purpose of devotion.

sons.

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The view from Mount Tabor is extolled by every traveller. "It is impossible," says one, "for man's eyes to behold a higher gratification of this nature." On the north-west you discern in the distance the noble expanse of the Mediterranean, while, all around, you see the spacious and beautiful plains of Esdraëlon and Galilee. Turning a little southward, you have in view the high mountains of Gilboa, so fatal to Saul and his Due east you discover the sea of Tiberias, distant about one day's journey. A few points to the north appears the mount of Beatitudes, the place where Christ delivered his sermon to his disciples and the multitude. Not far from this little hill is the city of Saphet, or Szaffad, standing upon elevated and very conspicuous ground. Still farther, in the same direction, is seen a lofty peak covered with snow, a part of the chain of Anti-Libanus. To the south-west is Carmel, and in the south the hills of Samaria.*

The following extract, from the unpublished journal already so often referred to, will amuse the reader:-"We arrived at the foot of Mount Tabor. It is, in its general outline, a round regularshaped hill, but is rocky and rough enough when it is to be ascended. It has many trees, mostly Valonia oaks. It stands on the east of the great Plain of Esdraëlon, up a recess formed by Mount Hermon on the one side, and the hills towards Nazareth on the other. Its height from the plain I should guess at 1000 feet. We ascended the greater part of the way on mules. On the top of the hill is one