Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . to the baying of wolves or wild dogs, was thecause of the rivers similarity of name among different nations. At the northern side of the promontory, the rocks impending over thenarrow way recede somewhat, and the road gradually descends into a sin-gular ravine, through which the Dog River finds its way to the sea. Onarriving at this point, the traveller looks directly down on the broad mirroredsurface of the river; whilst the mountain crags in the background are sothick
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . to the baying of wolves or wild dogs, was thecause of the rivers similarity of name among different nations. At the northern side of the promontory, the rocks impending over thenarrow way recede somewhat, and the road gradually descends into a sin-gular ravine, through which the Dog River finds its way to the sea. Onarriving at this point, the traveller looks directly down on the broad mirroredsurface of the river; whilst the mountain crags in the background are sothickly set in parallel ranges like the scenes of a theatre, that it is impossibleto discover the place whence the waters make their approach. The walls ofthe ravine are on all sides perpendicular, and form an amphitheatre, piercedonly on one side by a comparatively very narrow opening, through which theeye follows the rush of the river to the sea. In some places the long con-tinued action of the mountain-floods has so split the smooth rocky walls asto give them the appearance of colossal columns ranged closely side by side*. Antonine Way.—Rock Sculptures. 58 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND. The whole amphitheatre suggests the idea of an immense cathedral, thedome of which has perished, leaving only the naked walls, through whichyou look up to the sky. Here and there the walls are clothed with long lithewater-plants or moss, which offer further materials for busy fancy to fashioninto an endless variety of shapes. In some places the river fills the whole bed of the ravine up to the foot ofthe rock ; in others, it leaves a narrow margin overgrown with trees, sugar-canes, and creepers, that form a thick green vault over the banks, and some-times over the whole bed of the stream. A ruined khan stands on the rockby the water side, opposite a light bridge with pointed arches, about threehundred paces from the sea. On the northern bank there is an aqueduct offibout twenty arches, the waters of w
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