Thus far the pilgrims had been journeying along the edge of a plain consisting chiefly of moors, marshes, and sand. Before them lay a tract of more wooded country, and also, it seems, a part of the coast-road so neglected and overgrown with brushwood as to be impassable for their heavy cavalry. It appears that in consequence they made their way up the left bank of the Dead River till they struck the inland road.[766] Here they were much nearer to the hills and to the enemy. But Saladin had no mind to risk a general engagement till he had collected all his forces on a battle-ground of his own choosing; and on that same [Sidenote: _Sept. 3_] day he again removed his camp further south, into the midst of a great forest where he hoped to intercept the Christians on their way to the city which must be their next objective, Arsuf. His cavalry continued to hang about the Christian host[767] and harassed it incessantly on its march; yet the pilgrims plodded on, keeping in the same order as before, never breaking it except when the enemy’s attacks became so intolerable that the infantry had to open its ranks to let the cavalry pass through for a charge. On one of these occasions Richard was wounded in the left side by a Turkish javelin, but so slightly that the wound only inflamed his eagerness for the fight, and all day he was constantly driving off the assailants.[768] At nightfall they retired, and the host encamped near the “Salt River”—now the Nahr Iskanderuneh—which runs down to the plain from Shechem and falls into the sea seven or eight miles south of Caesarea. Here, again, they stayed two nights (September 3-5). The horses had suffered more severely than the men from the Turkish missiles; the badly wounded ones were now killed and sold by their owners to the men of lower rank for food; owing to the rush for them and the high prices charged there was much strife over this matter, till Richard checked it by proclaiming that he would give a live horse to any man who would make a present of a dead one to his poorer comrades in arms.[769]