Such was the conclusion of the Survey of the desert; in ten days of very hard work a party of three Englishmen had filled in 330 square miles, including visits to the various ruins in the district, and half a day spent at Masada. We had just finished the work when the great storm broke, and could now rest in a dry house with our beasts in a warm stable, and enjoy the reflection that this difficult piece of the Survey was happily accomplished. [Illustration: GATH.] CHAPTER XVIII. THE SHEPHELAH AND PHILISTIA. On the 11th of March we at last marched down from the hills to our new camp at Beit Jibrîn. Past the “Oak of rest,” and the Russian Hospice now building near it, we rode westwards to a narrow valley, wandering through vineyards and down rocky hillsides gay with flowers, and through hollows full of sprouting barley, and over slopes covered with grey olives. The road led to the hill-town of Tuffûh (Beth Tappuah), thence down to the mud village of Idhnah (Dannah), and then north-west through an open corn valley by Deir Nakhâs which is perched on a hill; and finally we came to the camping-place by a long village, on low ground, surrounded by hills, which hide it completely, and by long olive-groves. North of the houses are the traces of the old fortifications (which King Fulco constructed in 1134 A.D.) extending some 2000 yards. To the south is a fortress, and about one mile south-east, up the hill, is the old Byzantine Church of St. Anne, which was repaired at a later period by the Crusaders. Dr. Robinson was the first to show, by means of the distances to surrounding places, that Beit Jibrîn is the ancient Eleutheropolis; but this name has disappeared, as is usually the case with foreign names for places in Palestine. The present name, Jibrîn, was thought by the Crusaders to have some connection with the angel Gabriel, and they seem to have erected a church to St. Gabriel, of which only the north aisle remains, though the site is still remembered by the peasants, who there venerate a piece of open ground, which probably marks the old nave, and is now dedicated to Neby Jibrîn, “the Prophet Gabriel.” Here again we find the Moslems unconsciously worshipping at a Christian shrine. The Gibilin of the Crusaders is the Beto Gabra of the fourth century, and the name can be traced yet farther back. The Talmudic scholars understood “the dew of heaven from above” (Gen. xxvii. 39) to have some mysterious reference to Beth Gubrin, in Idumæa, and to its fertile neighbourhood; thus the present name is carried back to Jewish times, and there is no reason to suppose that the place ever had any other Hebrew name.