and found that his wife, mother, and two others in the family, had perished. On digging next day where his two companions had disappeared, they were found dead in a standing posture.'

The earthquake gave of course a terrible blow to the prosperity of the town. All the statistics we could now obtain, were to the following import. Before the earthquake the taxable Muslims were numbered at two hundred; of whom more than one hundred had perished, or been impressed as soldiers. The Christians are all Greek Catholics; and number from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men; while the men among the Jews were reckoned between one hundred and fifty and two hundred. This gives scarcely a population of two thousand souls. The fullest account of Tiberias in modern times, and particularly of the Jews, is by Burckhardt.3

Close on the shore, in the northern part of the town, is the church dedicated to St. Peter; a long narrow vaulted building, rude and without taste, which has sometimes been compared not inaptly to a boat turned upside down. It is in fact merely a long vault with a pointed arch, without windows; having at its west end a very small court. This court and church have been the usual resting place of Frank travellers in Tiberias; and have in this way become somewhat notorious, for the swarms of fleas by which they, as well as all the houses of the town, are infested. The church belongs to the Latin convent of Nazareth; the monks visit it annually on St. Peter's day and celebrate mass; at other times it is lent to the Greek Catholics of Tiberias. Latin monastic tradition places the edifice on the spot, where the miraculous draught of fishes took place after our Lord's resurrection, and where he gave his last charge to Peter.o Almost as a matter of course, too, the building of the church is

4

5

1 In A. D. 1759, Oct. 30th, Tiberias was in like manner laid waste by a similar earthquake. Mariti, who visited it soon after, describes it as utterly in ruins; and says that several buildings were swallowed up; Voyages II. p. 165, 166. Neuw. 1791. According to Volney, the shocks of the same earthquake continued for three months to disquiet the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon; and 20,000 persons were reported to have perished in the valley of el-Bŭkâ'a; Voyage I. p. 276, Paris 1787. Comp. Bachiene Th. II. Bd. IV. p. 134.-I have not been able to find any more full account of this earthquake; which seems to have been not less terrific than that of 1837.

2 In 1836 there are said to have been three hundred families of Jews in Tiberias; Elliott's Travels II. p. 346. Burckhardt in 1812 gives the population at 4000 souls,

of whom one fourth part were Jews; p. 322. In 1815 the number of houses is given by Turner, on the authority of a respectable Jew, at 400 Turkish, 100 Jewish, and 50 Christian; Tour etc. II. p. 140. Berggren in 1822, also on Jewish authority, gives the number of souls at over 4000, of whom only some 300 were said to be Jews. Reise II. p. 244.

3 Travels pp. 320-328. See also Scholz p. 248.

4 Hasselquist p. 181. Burckhardt p. 320. Turner p. 140, 142. Irby and Mangles pp. 294, 295. [89, 90.] Monro I. pp. 309, 313, 316. The natives are said to have here the current saying: "The king of the fleas has his court at Túbarîyeh;" Clarke's Travels in the Holy Land p. 478. 4to. Irby and Mangles 1. c. Turner 1. c. 5 Burckh. p. 322. Turner 1. c. 6 John c. 21.

1

ascribed to Helena, or at least to the fourth century; and even Dr Clarke chimes in with this absurdity. The pointed arch necessarily limits its antiquity to the time of the crusades, at the earliest; and Irby and Mangles further noticed, "that one of the stones of the building had part of an inverted Arabic inscription on it," which also goes to contradict the legend." We observed no other traces of antiquity within the walls.3

Passing out of the city again to our tent, we kept on southwards along the lake, to visit the celebrated warm baths. On the way are many traces of ruins, evidently belonging to the ancient city, and showing that it was situated here; or, at least, extended much further than the modern town in this direction. They consist mostly of foundations, with traces of walls, heaps of stones, and a thick wall for some distance along the sea. Near the middle lie several scattered columns of gray granite, twelve or fifteen feet long; and at some distance, a single solitary column is still standing. Among the threshing-floors on the west of the town, were also two blocks of a column of polished red Syenite granite, about three feet in diameter; they were said to have been carried thither from these ruins. These traces of ancient remains extend nearly to the baths.5

4

The baths are on a part of the shore a little elevated above the lake, at the southern end of the strip of land above described, and about thirty-five minutes from the city. There is an old bathing house, now in decay, though baths for the common people are still kept up in it. A new building has been erected a few rods further north by Ibrahim Pasha; it was commenced in 1833, and passes here, and with reason, for a splendid edifice. The principal or public bath occupies the centre of the building, consisting of a large circular apartment, with a marble pavement all around the circular reservoir in the middle, to which several steps lead down. The roof is supported by columns. There are

1 1 Nicephorus Callistus in the 14th century places here one of Helena's reputed churches; 8. 30. See above, Vol. I. p. 375. Clarke's Travels etc. pp. 465, 466, 4to. See the historical notices of Tiberias further on.

2 Travels p. 295. [89.]

3 According to Burckhardt, "in the street, not far from the church, is a large stone, formerly the architrave of some building; upon which are sculptured in bas-relief two lions seizing two sheep." Travels p. 322.

tioned; e. g. by Quaresmius II. p. 864. Van Egmond and Heyman II. p. 33. Burckhardt p. 328. Burckhardt says also, that there are other remains on the north of the town, on a hill close to the lake, which commands the town and seems to have been once fortified; p. 329. Irby and Mangles, p. 293. [89.] But these are probably not older than the eighteenth century; see further on, p. 394.

This is the building described by Burckhardt; p. 339. According to Seetzen it was erected by Jezzar Pasha; * Burckhardt speaks also of columns of Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. p. 349. Reigray granite lying here in the lake; and of sen I. p. 348. In Hasselquist's day there others opposite the town, likewise in the was only a miserable house in ruins; p. water; pp. 321, 328. 557. Quaresmius speaks only of a hut 5 The same ruins have been often men- (tugurium) with two rooms; II. p. 866.

several doors, and between them niches or recesses in the wall, for the use of the bathers. We passed through this apartment, and found the heat and steam so very oppressive, that I was glad to regain the open air. In the same building are private rooms for wealthier guests; furnished in an uncommonly good oriental style. In the one we entered, was a large and beautiful bath of white marble. Just above the old building is the round reservoir, arched over; in which the water from the springs is first collected, and suffered to cool to the proper temperature for the use of the new baths. There are no traces of antiquity visible around the baths.1

2

According to the bath-keeper, there are four springs; one flowing out under the old building, and three others at intervals of a few paces further south. A covered channel now runs along before them all, collecting the water and conducting it to the reservoir; so that the comparatively small quantity which still flows in their former channels down to the sea, appears merely as if oozing out of the ground, rather than as coming from large springs. The more southern were said to be the largest. The water, as it issues from the ground, is too hot to bear the hand in it; a pocket thermometer held for some time. in the water, and then examined in the air, stood at 140° F. Our friend Mr Hebard, a short time before, had carefully examined his thermometer while still in the water, and found it standing at 144° F. The taste is excessively salt and bitter, like heated sea water; there is also a strong smell of sulphur, but no taste of it. The water deposits a sediment as it runs down to the sea, which differs in colour below the different springs, being in one white, in another greenish, in a third reddish yellow, etc. I am not aware that the water has ever been carefully analyzed. These baths are regarded as efficacious in rheumatic complaints, and in cases of debility; and are visited, principally in July, by people from all parts of Syria.

4

'Irby and Mangles speak of a wall beyond the springs, running from the lake to the mountain's side; they regard it as the fortification of Vespasian's camp, which is not improbable; p. 294. [89.] See Jos. B. J. 3. 10. 1; comp. 4. 1. 3.

2 The mountain has here a dark basaltic appearance. Hasselquist describes the rocks under which the springs flow out, as composed of a black and somewhat brittle sulphureous stone, which he seems to regard as the stink-stone of the Dead Sea; p. 556. See above, Vol. I. 512. p.

3

"At the time of the earthquake, Jan. 1, 1837, and for some days afterwards, the quantity of water flowing from the springs is said to have been immensely increased; it was also thought to have been hotter

than at ordinary times. See Mr Thomson's report, Miss. Herald Nov. 1837, p. 438.

4 Monro speaks of an analysis made for him by Dr Turner, the result of which is given very unsatisfactorily as follows: "The deposite consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, with a very small proportion of muriatic salts, differing in no respect from that of the Dead Sea;" Summer Ramble I. p. 312. Pococke brought home a bottle of these waters, and says: "It was found, that they had in them a considerable quantity of gross fixed vitriol, some alum, and a mineral salt; " Vol. II. i. p. 69. See also Hasselquist Reise p. 556. Burckhardt p. 329.

1

These warm fountains are mentioned by Pliny, and also not unfrequently by Josephus and in the Talmud. According to Josephus, they were not far from Tiberias, and were called Ammaus, signifying 'warm baths; so that this name would seem to be very probably merely the Greek form of the Hebrew Hammath, which has the same signification, and was the name of a town belonging to the tribe of Naphtali.2 The Talmud also everywhere speaks of these baths as the ancient Hammath; and although this position would perhaps fall more naturally within the limits of Zebulun, yet the place might still have been assigned to another tribe, as was done in so many other instances. The present Arabic word for warm baths, is in like manner the kindred form Hammâm.-Vespasian for a time had a fortified camp near these springs. I find no further direct mention of them, except in the Rabbinical writings already referred to, until the time of the crusades; when Benjamin of Tudela describes them. They are rarely spoken of by subsequent travellers before the seventeenth century.5

3

4

6

We returned from the baths; and as we sat at evening in the door of our tent, looking out over the placid surface of the lake, its aspect was too inviting not to allure us to take a bath in its limpid waters. The clear and gravelly bottom shelves down in this part very gradually, and is strewed with many pebbles. In or after the rainy season, when the torrents from the neighbouring hills and the more northern mountains, stream into the lake, the water rises to a higher level, and overflows the court-yards of the houses along its shore in Tiberias. The lake furnishes the only supply of water for the inhabitants; it is sparkling and pleasant to the taste; or at least it was so to us, after drinking so long of water carried in our leathern bottles. Indeed, I should not have hesitated to have joined Josephus and Quaresmius in pronouncing it sweet and most potable," had not some of our party discerned in it a slight brackish taste; which, considering the very copious brackish fountains that flow into it, is not improbable. Along the shore, Schubert picked up shells

8

Salignaco Tom. IX. c. 9. Cotovic. p.
Quaresmius II. p. 866, etc. etc.

359.

6 Burckhardt p. 332. Turner's Tour II. p. 142. See the remarks on the rise of the Jordan, above, Vol. I. pp. 541, 542.

7 Joseph. B. J. 3. 10. 7, xíμvn.......... yλukeîά TE Oμws EσTi Kal TOTIμWTάtn. Quaresmius II. p. 862, "Non conosæ, paludosæ, vel amare, sed claræ, dulces, potabiles, et fecundæ."

8 Schubert limits the brackish taste of the water to the shallow places along the shore; III. pp. 237, 238.

of the same species of fresh-water snails, which he had before found on the shore of the Dead Sea near the mouth of the Jordan.1

The lake is full of fish of various kinds; and Hasselquist was the first in modern times, to note the remarkable circumstance, that some of the same species of fish are met with here, as in the Nile, viz. Silurus and Mugil (chub), and likewise another which he calls Sparus Galilæus, a species of bream." We had no difficulty in procuring an abundant supply for our evening and morning meal; and found them delicate and well flavoured. The fishing is carried on only from the shore; it is usually farmed out by the government; but we did not learn on what terms it was at present held. 3 The little boat which we had seen with its white sail, as we descended to the city, was now lying on the eastern shore five or six miles distant; it had gone thither in order to fetch wood; and we pleased ourselves with the idea of taking a sail in it upon the lake the next day. Schubert saw here no boat the preceding year; though my companion found one, probably the same, in 1834 and again in 1835.*

The view of the lake from Tiberias embraces its whole extent, except the southwest extremity. The entrance of the Jordan from the north was distinctly visible, bearing N. E. by N. with a plain extending from it eastwards. Further west, Safed was also seen, N. 6° W. Upon the eastern shore, the mountain, or rather the wall of high table land, rises with more boldness than on the western side, and two deep ravines are seen breaking down through to the lake. That towards the north is the Wady Semak of Seetzen and Burckhardt; the more southern one is Wady Fîk, bearing E. by N. and having its head near the town of the same name. The view of the southern end of the lake is cut off by a high promontory of the western mountain, which projects considerably, not far beyond the hot springs; we could distinguish only the southeast corner of the sea, bearing about S. S. E. We would gladly have followed the shore southwards to the

Hasselq. Reise pp. 181, 389, 412 sq. 428 sq. Josephus speaks also of kinds of fishes peculiar to this lake, B. J. 3. 10. 7.

3 When Burckhardt was here in 1812, the fishery of the lake was rented at 700 piastres a year; Trav. p. 332.

boat had fallen to pieces the year before; p. 332. According to Turner, it had been built by Jezzar in order to bring wood from the eastern shore; II. p. 141. Irby and Mangles in 1818 found no boat whatever, p. 295, [90,] although Richardson a year earlier speaks of seeing two; Vol. II. p. 429. According to Berggren there was none in 1822, II. p. 242; and Prokesch affirms the same in 1829; p. 139.

4 Schubert Reise III. p. 237. Pococke made an excursion upon the lake in a boat, which was kept "in order to bring wood from the other side;" II. i. p. 69.- 5 Seetzen in Zach's Mon. Corr. XVIII. Seetzen in 1806 found a single boat on the p. 347. Reisen I. p. 343. Burckhardt p. lake, but not in a state to be used; Zach's 281. For the Wady and village of Fik, Monatl. Corr. XVIII, p. 350. Reisen I. p. see more in Burckhardt, p. 279 sq. 350. Burckhardt in 1812 says the only