The Benson signal., 1915-10-23

tageous to besiegers, could not be i'm
agined. Here was extinguished the
last spark of Jewish independence.
An eight-mile journey along the
coast from here, and Jebel Usdum
comes into view This is nothing less
than mountain of rock salt, six miles
long, rising at one point to a height
of 500 feet. In this mountain is a
large cave which was explored to the
extent of about two hundred yards.
1t is dimly lighted up to this point
by a natural shaft in the rock salt,
which admits the sunlight from above.
The shaft is 80 feet high and 20 feet
in diameter.
From the ceiling of this cave hang
great snow-white stalactites, very salty
and bitter to the taste. The approach
to this mountain presents most fan
tastic appearances Of walls, buttres-
ses, parapets, projecting towers, ETC.,
caused by the stratification and lay
of the salt bowlders
Canyons Of Palestine.
0OluS AOl LAW dAO, VIC 1ud5uAACCAt
gorge Of the river Arnon was reached.
This certainly contains the finest nat
ural scenery in Palestine. The sides
of the canyon rise perpendicularly
about three hundred feet, and are
only about two hundred feet apart,
here overhanging, there overlapping
or dovetailing into one another, as
though this mighty mass had been
violently rent asunder to allow the
seething stream of the Arnon, with its
cascades and whirlpools, access to the
sea. The gorge was explored for a
distance of half mile, probably far
ther than anyone had before pene-
trated.
Here one is afforded a striking pic
ture of the difference between the
western and the eastern sides of this
wonderful sheet of water. The cliffs
along the former are of limestone,
while those on the eastern shore are
of sandstone of exquisite hues. Words
cannot describe, nor can the painter
depict, much less the camera portray,
the exhaustless variety and beauty
of the yeining and tracery in the
richly shaded sandstone forming the
cliffs of this wonderful gorge.
About eight miles farther north fie
the hot baths of Callirhoe Here Hero6
came, when stricken with his last
sickness. in the hope Of finding that
recovery which he sought in vain, and
here the remains of his buildings can
be seen. Several miles higher up lies
the castle of Machaerus, where John
the Baptist was beheaded. This is
evidently very volcanic region. From
great clefts in the mountain-sides,
where one can distinctly hear the
bubbling of the flowing hot waters,
clouds of steam rise up.
The Zerka-a stream almost as
great as the Arnon, and amidst sur
roundings of much the same charac-
ter, but having small plain on the
seashore that might very we'll be cul-
tivated-f1Ows into the sea some fif-
teen minutes journey farther north
from Callirhoe.
Here, as elsewhere, the wild olean-
der, with it's beautiful pink flower, is
abundant, also the reed, with it's feath-
cry tuft or bloom, shaken by the
wind" and referred to by Christ; also
the willow, the tamarisk, and the
"gharaf," a pretty-looking wild fruit
much like a cherry, as we'll as that
strange plant, the apple Of Sodom.
This, though looking like beautiful
fruit, collapses at the touch, and con-
tains nothing but little smoke-llke
dust and some silk-like fiber Mount
Nebo, from which Moses viewed the
Promised Land, is about opposite the
north end of the sea, on the table
lands, and Medaba about ten miles
inland, in a straight line. Between
Medaba and Kerak, before crossing
the River Arnon, lies the ancient Di-
bon, where was discovered the historic