Every step we took in this district, hallowed by so many sacred associations, seemed to furnish a fresh commentary on the discourses of our Lord. Every detail in the parable of the sower passed under our view—the hard pathway running through unenclosed fields upon which the seed fell without finding entrance, the soil choked with thorns through which the tender blades were struggling, the thin, shallow coating of earth resting upon the rock beneath, and the luxuriant growth of the rich deep loam bringing its return of a hundredfold to the sower.[260] The edge of the lake is fringed with thickets of oleander in full bloom. The turf carpeted with an incomparable profusion of wild flowers, the variety and splendour of which surpassed all that I had seen elsewhere, covered the earth with a mantle of beauty with which “Solomon in all his glory” could not vie.[261] Here and there is a fisherman who has cast off his “fisher’s coat” and stands “naked” in the water “casting his nets,” or drawing them ashore, or examining his haul, choosing the good, rejecting the worthless.[262] [Illustration: _By Permission of Mr. Macgregor._ SOUTHERN END OF THE SEA OF GALILEE. ] Many travellers have spoken of the sudden and violent storms to which the lake is liable. This is common to all lakes surrounded by mountains. But the danger is greatly increased here by the depression of the surface below the sea level. Gusts of wind rush down from the mountains into the rarefied air below, and raise storms of extraordinary suddenness and fury. One of these I experienced which illustrated many of the details of New Testament history. I had taken a boat on a bright, cloudless morning, to explore the eastern shores and the point where the Jordan enters the lake. There was not a ripple on the water, not a perceptible current in the air. Almost without warning the wind rose, the waves, crested with foam, began to break over the sides of the boat. I was sitting on a cushion or “pillow” on the flat, raised stern “in the hinder part of the ship” and watched the crew “toiling in rowing.” But all their efforts were vain. They were unable to make any way for “the wind was contrary.” At length one of them jumped overboard, and partly swimming, partly wading, towed the vessel ashore close to the site of Capernaum.[263] Walking thence to our camp at Khan Minyeh we passed the probable site of Bethsaida (_the house of fish_). Here we found the fishermen washing, drying, and mending their nets.[264] [Illustration: HILLS OVER GENNESARETH.] At the end of a glen which ran westward from our camp is the mountain which tradition asserts with some probability to be that of the Beatitudes, and high above it, visible from every point for miles around, is the city of Safed—“a city which is set on a hill and cannot be hid.”[265]