_Kelt_, by some supposed to be the _Cherith_ of Elijah's history.
Suddenly we were on the brow of a deep descent, with the Ghor, or Jericho
plain, and the Dead Sea spread out below. In going down, we had upon our
left hand considerable fragments of ancient masonry, containing lines of
Roman reticulated brickwork.

It was now evening; a breeze, but not a cool one, blowing; and we left
aside for this time the pretty camping station of Elisha's Fountain,
because we had business to transact at the village of Er-Rihha, (or
Jericho.) There accordingly our tents were pitched; and in a circle at
our doors were attentive listeners to a narration of the events of Lieut.
Molyneux's Expedition on the Jordan and Dead Sea in 1847.

Thermometer after sunset, inside the tent, at 89 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sleep very much disturbed by small black sandflies and ants.

_Thursday_, 10_th_.--Thermometer at 76 degrees before sunrise. The scene
around us was animated and diversified; but several of us had been
accustomed to Oriental affairs--some for a good many years; and some were
even familiar with the particular localities and customs of this
district. Others were young in age, and fresh to the country; expressing
their wonderment at finding themselves so near to scenes read of from
infancy--scarcely believing that they had at length approached near to

"That bituminous lake
Where Sodom stood,"

and filled with joyous expectation at the visit so soon to be made to the
Jordan, and beyond it. Some were quoting Scripture; some quoting poetry;
and others taking particular notice of the wild Arabs, who were by this
time increasing in number about us,--their spears, their mares, their
guttural language, and not less the barren desert scene before us, being
objects of romantic interest.

At length all the tents and luggage were loaded on the mules, and ten men
of the village were hired for helping to convey our property across the
river; and we went forward over the strange plain which is neither desert
sand, as in Africa, nor wilderness of creeping plants and flowers, as on
the way to Petra, but a puzzling, though monotonous succession of low
eminences,--of a nature something like rotten chalk ground, if there be
such a thing in existence,--between which eminences we had to wind our
way, until we reached the border of tamarisk-trees, large reeds, willow,
aspen, etc., that fringes the river; invisible till one reaches close
upo