As we approached the hills, the face of the plain became more uneven; the points of the ridges ran out irregularly, and more rocks began to appear on the surface. The line of hills is however more regular than is usual, and the transition from the plain to the hills is more gradual than is usually found on the borders of large plains. We passed over a low, rocky point of a ridge, and saw some ruins; and at one place the large hewn stones and broken pillars indicated buildings of some consequence. The hills are not continuous ridges, but knobs, not very high, nor very steep; the top rounded over. Many of them are separated from each other almost to the base; but a greater number join at one or more sides, at various heights from their bases. Taking the hollows, and the passages between the hills, (and in some places there are little level spots,) as the level of the country, I should say that the general level, as we pass east, rises; and the height of the hills above this general level, continues about the same for a great part of the way from the commencement of the hills to near Jerusalem. This district is well called the "hill country of Judea." Nothing could better express it. They are usually in books called mountains; but their size, that is their height above the general level of the country, hardly entitles them to that appellation. They are rather hills than mountains. As we rode among the hills, we began to see a few small shrubs and bushes of oak. Most of them, however, were small; few as high as a man on horseback. There were also, at some places in the hollows, where, during the rains, water flows, some bushes, thistles, and other kinds of vegetation, but small of size and few in number. As we passed farther in among the hills, the vegetation increased, both as to size and quantity; it however never amounted to much. We saw, from time to time, some orchards of olives, and a few scattering trees; as we approached the higher part of the hilly district, we saw some hills that were to some extent covered with the olives. Still but a small, a very small part of the country was thus made to minister to the wants and comfort of man. As we advanced, the rock became more abundant; it was all limestone, mixed in some places with veins of flint; usually horizontal, and often projecting out on the sides of the hills, and much stratified; and the various strata being of different degrees of firmness, causing them to have a singular appearance. The soft stratum had in many places disintegrated, and formed a stratum of earth, which entirely concealed the rock; while the hard stratum formed a kind of wall, and in many places, from its regularity in thickness and direction round the side of the hill, it had much the appearance of having been the work of man. In some places again, where a hard stratum lay directly over a soft one, the crumbling away of the soft one formed a kind of natural cave under the hard one; places could be