are of an exceedingly mild blue, even from a high elevation and a

distance of five miles. Close at hand (the witness was sailing on the

lake,) it is hardly proper to call them blue at all, much less "deep"

blue. I wish to state, also, not as a correction, but as matter of

opinion, that Mount Hermon is not a striking or picturesque mountain by

any means, being too near the height of its immediate neighbors to be so.

That is all. I do not object to the witness dragging a mountain

forty-five miles to help the scenery under consideration, because it is

entirely proper to do it, and besides, the picture needs it.

"C. W. E.," (of "Life in the Holy Land,") deposes as follows:--

"A beautiful sea lies unbosomed among the Galilean hills, in the

midst of that land once possessed by Zebulon and Naphtali, Asher and

Dan. The azure of the sky penetrates the depths of the lake, and

the waters are sweet and cool. On the west, stretch broad fertile

plains; on the north the rocky shores rise step by step until in the

far distance tower the snowy heights of Hermon; on the east through

a misty veil are seen the high plains of Perea, which stretch away

in rugged mountains leading the mind by varied paths toward

Jerusalem the Holy. Flowers bloom in this terrestrial paradise,

once beautiful and verdant with waving trees; singing birds enchant

the ear; the turtle-dove soothes with its soft note; the crested

lark sends up its song toward heaven, and the grave and stately

stork inspires the mind with thought, and leads it on to meditation

and repose. Life here was once idyllic, charming; here were once no

578

The Innocents Abroad