"So we went up the bank about a mile, and while the horses were driven through the water our party walked over an old aqueduct which wasn't the safest bridge in the world, but a great deal better than no bridge at all. The channel of the aqueduct was about a foot wide, and the sides eighteen or twenty inches high; the whole structure was at least fifty feet above the torrent that dashed below us like the rapids of Niagara. We walked very carefully, as the least misstep might have sent us tumbling over the side, with an excellent prospect of being killed by the fall or drowned in the roaring water. It is hardly necessary to say we were all heartily glad to be on the safe side of the stream. "We had a ride of five hours from this bridge to the gates of Jerusalem, and such a five hours we do not care to have again. "Before the end of the first hour it came on to rain, and by the middle of the second hour the rain had changed to snow. And with the rain and snow there was a high wind, and as we wound among the hills we had it in all directions, now in our faces, and a few minutes later blowing at our backs. "The guide repeatedly called our attention to places of scriptural or other interest. We tried to look at them, but I fear we were more concerned about the weather than with what lay around us. But we remember among other things that the route from Jerusalem to Jericho has the same character now that it had eighteen centuries ago, and we had an escort to protect us from falling among thieves. We halted a few minutes at the ruined khan which is said to be the site of the inn to which the good Samaritan carried the wounded and plundered traveller whom he found by the way-side. "The guide told us that a few years ago an English traveller was robbed by the Arabs at this very spot, and the scriptural description will exactly cover his case: 'They stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.' [Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF BETHANY.] "Our road was steadily upward, as Jerusalem is nearly three thousand seven hundred feet higher than the Dead Sea, and we were not far above the level of that body of water when we started from Jericho. At several points we were on the old road built by the Romans; we went by Bethany, which we did not stop to look at, and wound around the Mount of Olives, and down through the Valley of the Brook Kedron, which we crossed near Gethsemane. Then we entered Jerusalem by the Gate of the Tribes, and rode along the nearly deserted streets to the door of the hotel. "We were all so benumbed and stiff with the cold that we needed assistance to descend from our horses, and we could not keep our steps straight as we entered the building. A good fire and a hot dinner brought us to ourselves again, and we laughed over our troubles and began to think they did not amount to much, after all.