the denounced land. 4&

son, had once been the bottom of a sea, or the bed of
a river. This dreary valley, extending far beyond
the reach of the eye, had been partly explored by
Burckhardt; sufficiently to ascertain and mention
it in the latest geography of the country, as
the great valley of El Ghor, extending from the
shores of the Elanitic gulf to the southern extrem-
ity of the Lake Asphaltites or the Dead Sea ; and it
was manifest by landmarks of Nature's own pro-
viding, that over that sandy plain those seas had
once mingled their waters, or, perhaps more prob-
ably, that before the cities of the plain had been
consumed by brimstone and fire, and Sodom and
Gomorrah covered by a pestilential lake, the Jor-
dan, had here rolled its waters. -The valley varied
from eight to twelve miles in breadth, and on each
side were high, dark, and barren mountains, bound-
ing it like a wall. On the left were the mountains
of Judea, and on the right those of Seir—the por~
tion given to Esau as an inheritance; and among
them, buried from the eyes of strangers, the ap-
proach to it known only to the wandering Be-
douins, was the ancient capital of his kingdom, the
excavated city of Petra, the cursed and blighted
Edom of the Edomites. The land of Idumea lay
before me, in barrenness and desolation ; no trees
grew in the valley, and no verdure on the moun-
tain-tops. All was; bare, dreary, and desolate.

But the beauty of the weather atoned for this
barrenness of scene ; and, mounted on the back of
my Arabian, I felt a lightness of frame and an elas-

e a