skirting a little channel of running water which brings the
outflow of another fountain to enrich a part of the plain. It
was made good for the cultivation of a large tract; although
very wild and disorderly cultivation. As we went, every spot
within sight was full of interest; rich with associations; the
air was warm but pleasant; the warble of the orange-winged
blackbird - I don't know if I ought to call it a warble; it
was a very fine and strong note, or whistle, - sounding from
the rocks as we went by, thrilled me with a wild reminder of
all that had once been busy life there, where now the
blackbird's cry sounded alone. The ruins of what had been, -
the blank, that was once so filled up, - the forlorn repose,
where the stir of the ages had been so restlessly active. I
heard Mr. Dinwiddie's talk as we went, he was telling and
explaining things to me. I heard, but could not make much
answer. Thought was too full.

A good distance from home, that is, from the tents, we reached
the source of all that fertilising water the channel of which
we had followed up. How wild the source was too! No Saracenic
arch over that; the water in a full flow came out from among
the roots of a great tree - one of the curious thorny dôm
trees that grow in thickets over the plain. I believe our
Arabs called them dôm; Mr. Dinwiddie said it was a Zizyphus.
It was a very large tree at any rate, and with its odd thorny
branches and bright green foliage canopied picturesquely the
fine spring beneath it. All was wild and waste. The Arabs do
not even root out the dîm or nubk trees from the spots they
irrigate and cultivate; but the little channels of water flow
in and out among the stems and roots of the trees as they can.