I know that numerous travellers, including ladies, have been there in
safety; and it is probable that some of the disputes which have arisen
were occasioned either through ignorance, or from insolence of the
dragomans. It would be interesting to compare the accounts of those who
have suffered annoyances in Petra, so as to ascertain how far the
Fellahheen were to blame, or whether difficulties are not rather due to
the Arab tribes who are in the habit of tyrannising over the Fellahheen
from the outside.

C. _On the 'Arabah and the Dead Sea_.

While on the spot, I had wished to believe in the theory of Leake in
1822, and afterwards turned almost into poetry by Lord Lindsay,
notwithstanding the demonstrations of Bertou in 1838, and of the American
expedition of 1848, namely, that the Jordan formerly flowed the whole
length from the Anti-Lebanon to the Red Sea, and that the Asphaltite
Lake, or Dead Sea, is only formed by a stoppage of its stream.

Two facts, however, which militate against this theory, were visible to
our eyes on this journey.

1. That the valleys south of the Dead Sea all point towards it, and
incline the slope of their beds in that direction. This was most
particularly the case with the Wadi el Jaib, where the banks between
which the torrents had cut a channel became higher, which is equivalent
to saying that the water fell lower as it passed northwards.

2. That wherever there were trees or shrubs to arrest the currents of
water, we found that all the rushes, thorns, or reeds carried on by the
streams, were arrested on the south side of those trees, and there they
remained in the dry season.

The course of the torrents was therefore from the south, towards the Dead
Sea.

The best dissertation on the relative levels of lands and seas, bearing
on this subject, and that which I believe to be exhaustive on the
subject, till we get more of scientific realities, is contained in vol.
xviii., part 2, of the Royal Geographical Society's Journal of 1848.

Still, allowing the facts that I myself observed, as well as all the
scientific calculations in the Journal above referred to, (indeed, making
use of them,) there seem to remain certain considerations undisposed of,
in favour of the theory that the Jordan formerly ran into the Red Sea.

1. The 'Arabah, south of the Dead Sea, and the Ghor on its north, are
one continued hollow between the same parallel lines of hills; and
Robinson has shown that