The preceding pages give but a sketch of the labours of our first autumn. The information collected cannot be condensed into a few pages, and it forms a very considerable section of the memoir to the map. The main points of interest have been touched upon, but the discoveries of aqueducts, tombs, a hermitage, etc., the exploration of Crusading churches, Roman sepulchral buildings, and other ruins, must be at present passed over in silence.
On the 10th of December the weather threatened to break up, and we marched down to the neat little house which we had hired for the winter, in the German colony at Haifa.
Carmel is best described as a triangular block of mountains, the apex being the promontory on which the Carmelite monastery stands. The watershed runs south-east from this point for twelve miles, to the Mahrakah or "place of burning,â a peak visible from Jaffa in fine weather: south of which lies Wâdy el Milh, and above that valley a large volcanic outbreak near the apparent centre of upheaval of the Carmel ridge. Another centre also exists farther west near Ikzim. The highest part of the mountain is 1740 feet above the sea at the Druse village of 'Esfia. The Peak of Mahrakah is only 1687 feet high, and the promontory by the monastery 500, but the slope of the shed is gradual. Long spurs run out westwards from this ridge and fill up the triangle, their western extremities having steep slopes above a narrow plain along the sea-coast. In the valleys among them are two fine springs, and others smaller. The north-eastern declivity of the ridge is extremely steep, and fine cliffs occur in places. At the foot of the mountain are numerous springs feeding the Kishon, which runs beneath, gradually diverging northwards. The little town of Haifa nestles under the promontory, by which it is sheltered from the south-west wind, its bay forming the best harbour on the coast. On the north side of the bay is St. Jean d'Acre, twelve miles along the curve of the shore from Haifa. On the narrow plain, between Carmel and the sea, there are also many places of interest. Sycaminon, Geba of Horsemen, Calamon, Elijah's Fountain, the Crusading Capernaum, and the strong and beautiful Château Pelerin with its little advanced port of Le Detroit. On Carmel itself is a ruined synagogue, and on the south of the range beneath the inland cliffs are the fine springs feeding the Crocodile river.