lunched beside a tree near an old, mossy mill, where the sparkling, flashing water set in motion, by means of turbines, four run of stones, whose pleasant croon gave a rural suggestion like that of a Canadian back woods village mill. We offered a few eggs to an Arab woman who wistfully watched our proceedings. At first she could not understand us, but when we put them in her lap a glad smile lit up her sombre features.

Where the Hasbany, a tributary of the Jordan, rushes down a picturesque ravine, we crossed a fine old Roman bridge which leaps across the gorge by a single arch. The stone pavement was worn to slippery smoothness by the tread of camels for hundreds of years. The bridge had no parapet and it looked quite perilous to cross, but we all got safely over. The whole region now became amphibious, so full was it of springs which water the plain.

Waters everywhere abounded, irrigating orchards of pomegranates, dates, peaches, figs and pears.

We rode through the bed of the stream between retaining walls made to prevent its overflow, and soon reached a splendid fountain springing up amid the thicket of dark oaks, fragrant oleanders, and silvery birches and poplars. This is one of the chief sources of the most sacred river in the world. Near it rises a grassy mound covered with crumbling ruins, on which grew two majestic oaks. This is Tel-el-Kadi, Hill of the Judge, or "the City of Dan," which has the same signification, on the site of the old Phoenician town of Laish. This was the northern limit of ancient Israel, hence the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba," and here Jeroboam set up one of his two golden calves for idolatrous worship, the other being on the sacred site of Bethel.

Beneath a venerable oak, profusely hung with rags and fragments of cloth, in honour of some Moslem saint, we took our lunch. A few small but fertile fields yield a great profusion of wheat and vegetables, but it was almost impossible to make one's way through the tangled undergrowth of brush and trees nourished by the abounding waters.

Two hours' ride further over a rugged road, and a climb of five hundred feet, brought us to the most picturesque camp we found in Palestine. It was on the banks of a rushing stream

on the outskirts of the town of Banias, the ancient CæsareaPhilippi, the chief source of the Jordan. The shattered towers and broken walls of the ancient town were of peculiar picturesqueness. The approach to our camp was through the gate in an old wall, shown on page 9. The round objects in the wall are sections of ancient columns built into its structure. On the site of a bold cliff is a great grotto from which gushes out strong and clear the infant Jordan, a stream fifty feet in width. This fountain is described by Josephus as descending to an immeasurable depth. For unknown ages this wild glen, the source of this

noble stream, has been a sacred shrine from Phoenician and classic times. Here the Greeks had their temple to the god Pan, whence the classic name of Panium, corrupted to the modern Banias. Over this fountain Herod the Great built a temple in honour of Augustus. This was probably the "Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon." (Joshua xi. 17.) We entered the grotto and tried to decipher the well-nigh obliterated

THE JORDAN, BANIAS.

Greek inscriptions on the tablets shown to the right of cut on page 10, and more fully shown on this page. All we could make -out were some references to the priest of Pan. The domed struc

ture on the cliff is the church of St. George. An ancient moat with ruined walls surrounds the town. In the gardens and narrow alleys may be seen shattered columns of the temples and palaces of Cæsarea-Philippi.

We observed here a curious custom of the people that of living in booths, made of boughs covered with leafy branches, on their house-tops, for the sake, we learned, of coolness and exemption during the summer from the attacks of scorpions that lurk amid the ruins. Special interest is given the town from its being the northern limit of our Lord's journeys in Palestine, and on this noble terrace, in full view of the stately architecture of the Roman city, our Lord held that nemorable conversation with His disciples, recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" ending in the affirmation which has become the watchword of the Church of Rome, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

The ruins of Cæsarea-Philippi have crumbled almost into nothingness, but that Church founded upon the immovable rock, Jesus Christ, the true Corner-stone, has been built up in every land. The concensus of the best opinion on the subject is that on one of the neighbouring peaks of Hermon the Master led His three disciples "into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." This glorious mountain, the grandest in Palestine, was surely a fitting place for such a sublime epiphany.

A thousand feet above the town towers the famous castle of Banias, or Es-Subeibah, one of the most majestic ruins in the world. We rode up the steep hillside through olive groves and wheat fields for over an hour, and then left our horses for a scramble up the rocky cliffs and broken battlements into the castle. I was completely astounded at the extent, magnificence and strength of this huge structure. It impressed me as being more than twice as large as the famous castles of Heidelberg or Edinburgh. It is perched on an isolated cliff 1,500 feet above Banias, and is one thousand feet long, and about three hundred in width. Dr. Merrill affirms that it exhibits the work of every period, from the early Phoenician to the time of the Crusaders. The walls, of immense thickness, rise one hundred feet, while beneath, for six hundred, sink the almost perpendicular sides of the cliff, and for nine hundred more slope abruptly to the fountain of Banias.

At the eastern end of the castle is the acropolis or citadel, 150 feet higher, with a wall and moat of its own of immense strength, a castle within a castle, as described by Josephus. Great arched cisterns and stone chambers could contain an inexhaustible supply of water, grain and other stores. We climbed to a lofty turret where rested, high in air, a bell-shaped monolith which rang

sonorously when struck. A long, dark stairway penetrates far down into the heart of the mountain, and, the Arabs assert, reaches the springs of Banias two miles distant. This, however, seems incredible. A broad, winding road once led down to the

plain beneath.

This is now badly shattered. The view into the tremendous gorge below was one of the most impressive we have ever seen, while in the distance stretched the long slope to the fertile plain of Huleh, laced all over with flashing streams, and to the north the Heights of Hermon, and the hills of Naphtali.