To our right we passed several villages, but most of them lay at some little distance from the road--as Anathoth, the town of Jeremiah, now a poor Mohammedan village--Geba, and Gibeah of Saul--Michmash, where Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines--Rimmon, in which the Benjamites found refuge when Gideon was destroyed. (Judges xx. 45.) At the distance of ten or twelve miles from Jerusalem we came to Beer, the town to which Jotham is supposed to have fled from his brother Abimelech. In approaching it, we passed over a fine plain, a part of which was under cultivation; near the town were orchards of olive and other fruit trees. We had intended to spend the night here, but we found several thousand Turkish horsemen encamped on the plain near the town. They were spread over the whole district adjoining the springs; and men, horses, camels, and donkeys, mixed together in the most irregular manner. Some of the officers and men had tents, but the majority of the army either had none or did not think it necessary to pitch them. The town, which is not large, was overrun with troops. We thought it, on the whole, not best to lodge with such company, and passed on to Ain-Brood. This led us past ancient Bethel,--there is now a small village there, and many ruins that show that it has once been a place of considerable size. It stands near the top of the ridge, and commands a fine view of the adjacent country. It was here that Abraham pitched his tent soon after entering the land of Canaan--and from this place he was made to look north and south, and east and west; and was assured that all the land he saw should be given to him and his seed. (Gen. xii. 8, and xiii. 3-14.) And here Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves, and induced Israel to worship before it. (1 Kings, xii. 29.) The precise situation of it, which lies a little to the east, is not known. There are ruins in several places, but a doubt remains as to which is the site of the city first taken by the Israelites on the hill country. The country about Bethel is slightly diversified with small plains and ridges; it is fertile, and well adapted to tillage--olive orchards, fruit trees, and vineyards are more numerous than in most parts of Palestine--the country is, moreover, better watered than the parts of the hill country that lie more to the south.