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servations, we were breathless with expectation. The quicksilver, in its oscillation, seemed to soar, but with no middle flight; and when settled, it rose and it rose — I need not say high above all height, but certainly higher than the maker of the barometer had, by his style and veneered index, ever intended it should indicate. It rose considerably above the 31 inches. The friends with me were much excited, and signed an attestation of the height to which it rose; and so catching, as you well know, are the demonstrations of science even in hands infinitely less able to explain them than yourself, that even the scheiks and wild Arabs of the desert looked on with approving eyes, and seemed to triumph, as we did, in the success of our experiment, proving the Dead Sea so greatly below all other seas.

The waters of the Dead Sea are not bitter, but so nauseously salt as to be impossible to swallow, and difficult to clear the mouth of. Some writers say shells are found; but we searched in vain for any. Grass and herbage grow close to the water-mark; and here we found, what I never saw in the great salt sea, large and numerous shrubs and trees growing a considerable way into the waters of the lake. Birds we saw, from the vulture and hawk, to the lark and linnet; but not many. At a little distance was a stony island, which one of the Arabs told us was once but barely covered with water, that they could wade to it. This, if true and continuous, would establish a progress; but I well know how jealous you great geologists are of what looks like a theory.

From this we wended our course up the banks of

the celebrated baptismal Jordan, which yields but a muddy and small supply, though almost the only supply, to the sea we had left behind us. We thence proceeded to the ancient Jericho, a name so familiar to us as children, even to our school-boy recreations: but how are the mighty fallen! Now, from its recent condition of a mud-walled village, we found it, from the tender mercies of Ibraham Pacha's retreating army, a burning and smoking ruin. From this we proceeded back towards Jerusalem, and made our little camp for the night on a beautiful stream that issues from the hills of the wilderness of the Temptation. Here, though elevated, I found by the barometer that we, if not in the bottom of the sea, were still, with the Dead Sea and the whole plain of Jericho, considerably below the level of the Mediterranean.

If this question should interest you, may I beg to refer you to Mr. Harvey, as above, to whom of right the barometer and observations belong, and to whom I immediately sent my remarks, made even to decimal minuteness, for him to make his calculations from. Whether the fact be important, I cannot judge; but to me it appears a remarkable phenomenon.

Like the ladies, I now come to the postscript, generally the most important, and in this case probably the most teazing part of the epistle. Whoever has been accustomed to walk through the streets, lanes, walls, rocks, hills, valleys, brooks, and fountains of Jerusalem, where the Scripture events have taken place, will be convinced he sees before him a part of the original material from whence the inspired writers have drawn their narratives; at once

satisfying him of the accuracy, while it gives a perfect idea of the situation, of the details. From the arrival of Jesus Christ from Jericho, his entrance before the Feast of the Passover to the time of the Last Supper, his cruel Crucifixion and Resurrection, every movement and resting-place may be traced, with scarce a doubt of any leading point of that eventful period: yet, strange to say, the art of painting in Italy has arisen and triumphed in her devotion to such scenes, with scarcely a reference or resemblance to these obvious localities. While the world was shut out from the Holy Land, this want of knowledge could not be felt; but when travellers now are, by the facilities of steam-boat navigation, conveyed so readily here, my impression is, the future painters of Scripture-pictures must stir themselves to be on a par with those who are to appreciate them. Being impressed with this, and seeing that a number of clergy and students of divinity have been making this journey, allow me to state to you, who are so great and so influential, a want that to us as a nation is now in the sacred land so obviously felt.

Every country but Great Britain have their establishments in Syria. There are Latin, i. e. Roman Catholic convents at Mount Carmel, Jaffa, Ramla, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, &c. under the protection of France. There are Greek convents in Jerusalem, St. Saba, Nazareth, with Arminian, Maronite and Coptic convents, under the protection of Russia!! Of these there is an Armenian convent in Jerusalem, not very inferior to our Oxford University. Let me also observe, that in Jerusalem and the chief towns of

Syria and the Levant, there are American missionaries. All these, in the absence of hotels, are ready to supply the wants of their travellers, while we, the poor subjects of Great Britain, whose sovereign, by the success of her Majesty's arms, has almost made a present of Syria to the Sultan, have not a spot to call our own. They are now trying to found a church, but it ought to be a college; and if so, where could this originate so well as from our leading universities?

May I offer my regards to Mrs. Buckland, and also most kind remembrances to Sir Francis and Lady Chantrey? There is no sculpture in Syria.

Entreating your kind excuse for all this, I have the

honour to be,

Your most obliged Servant,

D. W.

CHAPTER XI.

WILKIE AT JERUSALEM. — LETTERS TO MR. PHILLIPS, R. A., MR. JAMES HALL, AND MR. JOHN ABEL SMITH. WILKIE AT ALEXANDRIA, AND ON BOARD "THE ORIENTAL."- LETTERS TO MR. AND MISS WILKIE. SUDDEN ILLNESS AND DEATH.—EXTRACT FROM

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THE Letters and Journals of Wilkie continue to exhibit how unforgetful he was, though in a strange land, of the many friends he had left behind him. The interesting sights he saw at Jerusalem reminded him of his friend Phillips, and the happy hours he had spent in his society amid the rich pictorial stores, "And all the green delights of Italy."

TO THOMAS PHILLIPS, ESQ., R. A.

My dear Sir,

Jerusalem, 4th April, 1841.

At this distance from England, there are still many circumstances to recall me to those at home engaged in the same pursuit; and the recurrence of to-morrow, the first Monday in April, brings strongly to my mind the whole train of ideas attendant upon the preparation and delivery of the labours of my brother members for exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Such thoughts most readily recall one like yourself, so distinguished both as a member, and upon these

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