Thus ended my inspection of this really interesting place, so remarkable for being all built of black volcanic stone,--the theatre, the church, and the modern village, besides the rocks all about: add to this the vile appearance of the people, and one cannot wonder at visitors entertaining a dread and disgust at the whole.--I find that I have omitted to mention the mineral quality of the water, the most of which is undrinkable. We left Beisan at half-past nine, after examining it more completely than the published accounts of former travellers lead us to believe they have done. Thomson's account is of later date. Our journey now lay due north, along the Ghor to Tiberias; and a very pleasing journey it proved to be. In half an hour we had to ford a pretty wide stream, and in five minutes more were among very extensive ruins of an ancient town; upon a tumulus at its farther extremity are lying portions of three huge sarcophagi, and a portion of a thick column. This must be the "Es Soudah," (_i.e._, _black_,) mentioned by Thomson--indeed, all ruins of that district are of black basalt, excepting the columns and sarcophagi. The name _soda_ or _black_ occurs in English as a synonym for _alkali_, and means the black or dark-coloured ashes of the plant _al-kali_ when burnt for use--the white colour of it seen in Europe is obtained by chemical preparation. Black tents and fires of the kali burners were visible in many directions--a delicious breeze blowing in our faces; but above everything cheerful was the green line of the Jordan banks. No snow to be seen at present at that distance upon Hermon. At half-past eleven we were beneath some castellated remains of great extent, namely, the Crusaders' _Belvoir_, now called _Cocab el Hawa_. Our ground had become gradually more undulated; then hilly, and the Ghor narrowed: we were obliged to cross it diagonally towards the Jordan; forded a running stream abounding in oleander, where, according to his usual custom, my Egyptian servant took a handful of the flowers to wear in his waistcoat. Then the birds carolling so happily, recalling the well-known lines-- "And Jordan, those sweet banks of thine, With woods so full of nightingales." The songsters that I heard were certainly neither the linnets nor goldfinches of other parts of Palestine, but must have been the _bulbul_, the note of which, though rich and tender in expression, is not however the same with that of English nightingales. Then we came to the bridge called _Jis'r el Mejama'a_, which is in tolerably good condition, with one large and several smaller arches in two rows, and a dilapidated khan at the western end. I crossed over the bridge into the territory of Gilead. The khan has been a strong edifice, but the stones of the massive gateway, especially the great keystone, are split across, as if from the effects of gunpowder.