Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reposes under the same scattered oases in the Desert which afforded a shelter to the Israelites. The great empires noticed in the Biblical records have indeed utterly perished, but some have left behind them a world of glorious monumental records :-obelisks and pyramids, which stood even in the days of the patriarchs, and which testify to an established civilization, even long anterior; temples and tombs, upon the walls of which are vividly depicted the manners and customs of the time when they were reared or excavated, and which with their mute language wonderfully confirm even the minutiae of the scripture narrative.

To give to the Bible student, and especially the youthful reader, distinct and truthful ideas of the most important of these hallowed scenes, is the object of this little book. It does not profess to be a systematic and scientific geographical account of all the localities of the Old Testament, but in a brief compass to give lively impressions of some of the principal ones, and that almost entirely from personal observation. Every view brought forward with this object was drawn on the spot by the writer of the book, and the corresponding descriptions, except where pointed out, are penned from his own notes and recollections. The plan does not embrace many of the scenes of the New Testament, these being reserved for another volume. The present contains brief notices of the earliest sites in Palestine frequented by the patriarchs; of Egypt, and its condition in their day; of the scenes of the Exodus; of Edom, and its rock-hewn capital Petra; with a general survey of the past and present state of Jerusalem, containing the substance of the author's "Walks," in and around that memorable city.

CHAPTER I.

Patriarchal Sites.

ARRIVAL OF ABRAHAM IN PALESTINE-SICHEM-BETHELSODOM AND GOMORRAH-MAMRE-HAGAR AND ISH

MAEL-BEERSHEBA-RACHEL'S TOMB-BETHLEHEM.

BEFORE proceeding to notice the principal scenes of the lives of the patriarchs in Palestine, it will be desirable to give a brief notice of the geography of that country, memorable, beyond all others, in the history of one race, and of which every peculiarity thus acquires so great an interest. It is hardly necessary to explain even to the youthful reader what the Map besides will clearly show, that Syria and the Holy Land occupy, from north to south, the entire eastern sea-coast of the Mediterranean, extending from Upper Egypt on the south, to the ranges of Mount Taurus on the north.

It is well observed by Dr. Beard "that Syria is the centre of a deeper and more vivid interest than is possessed by any other similar portion of the earth; to every cultivated mind it presents topics most fitted to rivet attention and repay inquiry. A general impression prevailed amongst the ancients, that Jerusalem was the centre of the world; and though, with our knowledge of the rotundity of the earth, this conception might want exactitude, placing ourselves in

the position of the ancients, it would be found to contain important truth. With the distance from Ararat to Suez as a radius, let a circle be drawn, and the included space would be found to comprise the most civilized nations of antiquity.

"In a civil and martial point of view, Syria had always been the key of the East; while the facilities for the diffusion of knowledge from this point of civilization, afforded by the central position of Western Asia, were augmented by the very great amount of water-communication which it commanded. Not less important was the peculiar formation of Palestine as a sheltering-place for an assailed religious culture, which was destined in fullness of time to prove the source of a religious developement unknown in ancient days. Palestine in one view might be considered as a great natural fastness, affording, in its mountainous ranges and seaboard, walls of defence against armies from every part of Europe. Four strips of land demand the attention of those who desire to form a correct conception of the surface of Palestine-the line of sea-coast-the hill country, running north and south-the vale of the Jordanand the high lands lining its eastern border. All these four ranges have for their common origin the lofty mountain ridge, which, running off at right-angles from Mount Taurus, forms the high midlands of Palestine, and the line of trans-Jordanic table-lands; and extending along from the south of Judæa to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, are seen to rise in the lofty summits that are grouped together in the apex of the peninsula of Sinai. This line of mountain in its more northern part bears the name of Lebanon, or 'the white mountain,' from its being the only height in the vicinity whose top is covered with perpetual snow. Extending from north to south, Lebanon has two main ridges, called Lebanon and Ante-Lebanon; the westerly