On the sides of Carmel we discovered also a ruin called Semmaka, or the "Sumach tree,â where are remains of what seems to me to have been undoubtedly a synagogue. The dimensions and ornamentation of the lintel stones and pillars reproduce exactly those of the Galilean synagogues; and the place is a very likely one, as the town of Haifa has been a favourite residence of the Jews, from the time of Christ to the present day.
The district we now entered is rarely visited by travellers. The natives are savage and unruly, and the Government finds much difficulty in repressing their internal feuds. They are robbers and murderers, and we were astonished at the number of skulls and bones, in the old tombs, until we found that many were fractured, and we were told that they had belonged to persons murdered by the villagers. In one case I entered a Jewish sepulchre, the door of which was open, and found, to my horror, some six newly-interred corpses, lying on the floor in various directions, not with the right side and face to Mecca according to the proper form of sepulture among Moslems. These corpses therefore belonged apparently to strangers recently murdered.
Early in March, Drake returned and remained with us until the 1st of May, when he left for England and did not rejoin us until October. Thus, for the greater part of the year 1873, I was working with the only assistance of my excellent sergeant and corporal.
The weather was still uncertain. On the night of our arrival at Jeb'a, we had a heavy thunderstorm: again on the 18th of March we had, in a single storm, no less than 1·74 inches of rain. Yet, notwithstanding this, it was a pleasant time, for the air was cool and fresh, the hills carpeted with wild flowers, and the country round the camp full of objects of interest.
On the 21st of March we struck our tents, and marched south to Kannîr, on the edge of the Plain of Sharon, and opposite to Cæsarea, nine miles away. Scarcely had we settled down in our new position, when on the 15th the equinoctial gales came upon us, and found us in a bare flat field, without the shelter of either houses or trees.
The district west of camp was all plain, and to the east were the lower slopes of the "breezy land.â Both the slopes and the plain were covered with an open forest of oaks, less dense than that on the Nazareth hills, but of finer trees; and this woodland is the last remains of the great forest of Sharon, which is mentioned by Strabo as a "mighty wood.â The scenery is very pretty, and the streams, of which there are three between the Zerka and the 'Aujeh near Jaffa (all noticed in the march of the English in 1191 under King Richard), are, even in autumn, full of water.