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and withered grass. Here and there, indeed, are scanty plantations of cotton, with a few patches of doura, barley, and wheat. The villages, which are commonly surrounded with olive-trees and sycamores, are for the most part in ruins; exhibiting a melancholy proof, that, under a bad government, even the bounty of Heaven ceases to be a blessing.

The path by which the hilly barrier is penetrated is difficult, and in some places dangerous. But, before you reach it, turning toward the east, you perceive Rama, or Ramla, the ancient Arimathea, distinguished by its charming situation, and well known as the residence of a Christian community. The convent, it is true, had been plundered five years before it was visited by Chateaubriand; and it was not without the most urgent solicitation that the friars were permitted to repair their building; as if it were a maxim among the Turks, who by their domination continue to afflict and disgrace the finest parts of Palestine, that the progress of ruin and decay should never be arrested. Volney tells us, that when he was at Ramla, a commander resided there in a serai, the walls and floors of which were on the point of tumbling down. The Frenchman asked one of the inferior officers why his master did not at least pay some attention to his own apartment. The. reply was, "If another shall obtain his place next year, who will repay the expense ?"

A ride of two hours (from Ramla) brings the traveller to the verge of the mountains, when the road opens through a rugged ravine, and is formed in the dry channel of a torrent. A scene of affecting solitude and desolation surrounds his steps as he pursues his journey, in what is so simply described in the gospel as the "hill-country of Judea." Before him opens the vale of St. Jeremiah; and in the same direction, on the top of a rock, appears in the distance an ancient fortress called the castle of the Maccabees. It is conjectured that the author of the Lamentations was born in the village which still retains his name, amid these sombre mountains: so much is certain, at least, that the melancholy of this desolate scene appears to pervade the compositions of the prophet of sorrows. This was the pastoral country into which the mother of the REDEEMER came to salute her cousin Elizabeth.

The traveller toward Zion soon arrives at the brook where the youthful David picked up the five smooth stones, with one of which he slew the gigantic Goliath. He pursues his way through a dreary region to the summit of an elevated hill, after which he proceeds across a naked plain strewed with loose stones. All at once, at the extremity of this plain, he perceives a line of Gothic walls flanked with square towers, and the tops of a few buildings peeping above them-he beholds Jerusalem, once the joy of the whole earth!

ENTRANCE TO JERUSALEM.

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ENTRANCE TO JERUSALEM.

THE bright sunny weather we had so long enjoyed had now left us; dark, driving clouds flitted across the heavens, the wind blew cold, and howled fearfully among the rocks, and we approached Jerusalem through one of the wildest, gloomiest scenes of desolation I ever witnessed.

After riding for nearly three hours through the same dreary and solitary country, throughout which the dwelling of man was nowhere visible, we ascended a slight eminence, and the landscape then began to unbend and relax a little of its stern and barren aspect. Olive-woods were seen in front, and above a short screen of refreshing foliage appeared a white cupola, which was immediately hailed as "El Khobbs! Jerusalem!" Pushing our horses onward to the summit of the neighboring hill, behind which, in our advance, the small portion of the city had disappeared, we suddenly came upon a scene, imposing, from its contrast with the country we had lately traversed, and certainly one of the most interesting in the whole world.

Above the olive-woods in front, seated on the eminence, appeared a line of houses, domes, and minarets, conspicuous among which, and high above all, were the white cupola of the CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE,* and the dome of the mosque of Omar. To the left of these rose the Mount of Olives, a lofty and picturesque hill, scattered over with olive-trees, and crowned with a mosque and a Christian church.

We descended to the olive-groves,† and after passing several sepulchral excavations in the adjoining rocks, we came to a long range of stone battlemented Saracenic walls, and entered the city

• The church is built partly on the low ground and partly on the ascent. It is not entered from the Via Dolorosa: the traveller has to ascend the next street, and then, turning to the left, to proceed along a winding descent, till he arrives at a large open court in front of the church, where he will find everything his heart can wish in the form of crucifixes, carved shells, beads and bracelets, saints, and sherbet; all exposed to sale, and the venders seated on the ground beside their wares. The court is bounded by the wings of the convent: that on the right contains Mount Calvary, and other supposititious sacred places; that on the left, the Greek chapel, and anciently the belfry. The door of the church faces the court; it is on the side of the building. It is open only on certain days in the week, and certain hours in each day. To get it open. ed at any other time, it is necessary to have an order of the two convents, the Latin and the Greek, with the sanction of the governor of the city. When open, the door is always guarded by Turks, who exact a tribute from all who enter. Once admitted, the visiters may remain all night, if they please. The crowd pressing for admittance on certain days is immense; and the Turks, who keep the door, treat them in the roughest manner, notwithstanding that they pay for admission, squeezing and beating them about like so many cattle. "It must be allowed," says Dr. Richardson, "that they are often extremely riotous, and conduct themselves in a manner very unbecoming their character of pilgrims."

In the olive-yards of France, the olive-tree generally attains the height of eighteen or twenty-five feet, with a diameter of six inches to two feet. It ramifies at a small height, and forms a compact rounded summit. The foliage is of a pale, empoverished verdure, and the general appearance of the tree is not unlike that of a common willow which has been lopped, and which has acquired a new summit of three or four years' growth.

Olives are chiefly cultivated for the sake of the oil that they produce, which is not a profitable article of commerce, but forms a principal one of food to the inhabitants

of Jerusalem by a lofty Saracenic gateway, called the Babel Scham, or "the Damascus gate." We then traversed a narrow street, between, dark gloomy buildings of stone, which were furnished with a few narrow windows, with pointed arches stuck here and there without any order or arrangement. The dulness of the day, and the gloomy silence and desertion of the streets, presented a most saddening and melancholy spectacle. The rain began to patter upon the stones, and the clouds, chased along by the wind, threw a mournful obscurity over every object. A few Arab women, shrouding themselves under the porch of a mosque, and here and there a solitary Turk gathering his scanty garments tight about his meager person, and seeking shelter from the blast, were the only objects visible in the silent and deserted city.

How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princes among the provinces, how is she become tributary!"

"How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel!"

of the places where these trees are found. This oil is contained in the pulp only, whereas, other fruits have it in the nut or kernel. It is obtained by simple pressure, in the following manner. The olives are first bruised by a millstone, and afterward put into a sack, and then into the trough of a press for the purpose, which, by means of turning a strong screw, forces all the strong liquor out, which is called virgin oil. It is received in vessels half filled with water, from which it is taken off, and set apart in earthen jars. Several coarser kinds are obtained afterward by adding hot water to the bruised fruit.