A little anxiety was felt as to the ford in the river; and in truth it was a piece of good fortune that the weather had been so cold, and that snow instead of rain had fallen on the mountains. A slight rise of the stream must make the ford impassable. We might have made our way on foot along the E. side of the valley, though this appears pathless below the ford, and discovered some way for passing the stream lower down; but our baggage and precious collections could scarcely have followed that way, and practically we should have been prisoners for several days. As it was, the water at the ford was no higher than usual; the increased supply from the lower slopes was doubtless compensated by the cutting off of the drainage of the upper region, now deeply covered with snow. Soon after crossing the stream, we were met by Abraham, dressed in his best, who in this valley assumed quite a lofty air. He informed us, with a tone of great elation, that the country people took him for a sherreeff, and, had come out to ask a Jew for his blessing. The path was in places very slippery, and it was impossible to travel fast, and so it happened that the daylight was beginning to fade when we returned to our camp. This displayed a doleful spectacle. After more than twenty-four hours’ rain the piece of flat ground which we had selected was turned into a large pool of slippery mud. Hooker’s tent had been left standing; but the wet had worked its way inside, and there was scarcely a dry spot to be found, while there was no choice but to pitch the smaller tents in the midst of the general sludge. In such a case the best plan is to make a floor of branches and leafy twigs, and the carob trees that grew close at hand were at once requisitioned for the purpose. The Alpine Club tent, though the canvas was wet, when set over this rough flooring, afforded very tolerable shelter and freedom from the all-pervading mud. The advantages of this tent were further proved during the night. When pitched in open ground it depends, like every other tent, on such support as tent pegs can give; but when trees are at hand the supporting rope can be rigged fore and aft in such a way as to defy any storm to upset it. During the night a furious gale arose, as it seemed, quite suddenly, accompanied by torrents of rain; the tent pegs were drawn out of the muddy soil; and twice Hooker’s tent fell bodily to the ground, luckily with no other bad result than to envelop the sleeper in the clammy folds of the wet canvas. The soldiers contrived to keep their tent standing; but those who mounted guard, and the natives sent by the sheik for the same duty, must have passed a miserable night. The excitement caused by the falling of the tent, when the whole camp turned out with loud outcries, must have been welcome as a relief from the dreariness of the time.