to my hand.  As I returned to Tiberias, I had a good, cool bath in the sea, which is called by a variety of names, as “the sea of Tiberias,” “sea of Galilee,” “sea of Genessaret,” and “sea of Chinnereth.”  It is a small lake, thirteen miles long, lying six hundred and eighty-two feet below the level of the Mediterranean.  The depth is given as varying from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty-five feet.  It is really “Blue Galilee,” and the sight of it is an agreeable change to the eye after one has been traveling the dry, dusty roads leading through a country almost destitute of green vegetation.  In the spring, when the grass is growing and the flowers are in bloom, the highlands rising around the sea must be very beautiful.

Several places mentioned in the New Testament were situated along the Sea of Galilee, but they have fallen into ruin—­in some cases into utter ruin.  One of these was Bethsaida, where Jesus gave sight to a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and fed a multitude of about five thousand. (Luke 9:10-17.) It was also the home of Philip, Andrew, and Peter. (John 1:44.) It is thought by some that James and John also came from this place.  On the northwestern shore was Chorazin, situated in the neighborhood of Bethsaida; also Capernaum, once the home of Jesus; and Magdala, the name of which “has been immortalized in every language of Christendom as denoting the birth-place of Mary Magdalene, or better, Mary of Magdala.”  Safed is a large place on a mountain above the sea in sight of the Nazareth road, and was occupied by the French in 1799.  It is said that the Jews have a tradition that the Messiah will come from this place.  On the way back to Nazareth the driver stopped at the spring of Kefr Kenna and watered his horses and rested them awhile.  Hundreds of goats, calves, and other stock were being watered, and I saw an old stone coffin being used for a watering trough.

After another night in Nazareth, I was ready to go out to Mount Tabor.  For this trip I had engaged a horse to ride and a man to go along and show me where to ride it, for we did not follow a regular road, if, indeed, there is any such a thing leading to this historic place, which is about six miles from Nazareth.  It was only a little past four o’clock in the morning when we started, and the flat top of the mountain, two thousand and eighteen feet above sea level, was reached at an early hour.  Mount Tabor is a well-shaped cone, with a good road for horseback riding leading up its side.  There is some evidence that there was a city here more than two hundred years before Christ.  Josephus fortified it in his day, and part of the old wall still remains.  According to a tradition, contradicted by the conclusion of modern scholars, this is the mount of transfiguration.  By the end of the sixth century three churches had been erected on the summit to commemorate the three tabernacles which Peter proposed to build (Matt. 17:1-8), and now the Greek and Roman Catholics have each a monastery only a short distance apart, separated by a stone wall or fence.  The extensive view from the top is very fine, including a section of Galilee from the Mediterranean to the sea of Tiberias.