fourths of a mile broad, was rather of a tame than savage character. On the second night, April 11th, the party stopped near the falls and whirlpool of el-Bŭkah. The ruins of the village ed-Delhemiyeh are near, on the right bank. At 5. 40 P. M., where the river was about sixty yards wide, the village el-Abbadiyeh was passed, a miserable collection of mud huts. The average width of the river was forty yards; depth from two and a half to six feet. General course E. S. E. Nine rapids were passed, three of them terrific ones. The route of the accompanying land party, under the charge of Lieut. Dale, lay through an extensive plain, luxuriant in vegetation, and presenting in spots a rich alluvial soil. The night was a bright moonlight, the dew fell heavily and the air was chill.

On the night of April 12th, the stopping place was about 200 yards below el-Jisr Mejàmia, the bridge which is on the road from Nabulus, through Beisân, the Bethshean of 1 Sam. 31: 10, to Damascus. The main course of the stream was S. S. W., but it was very serpentine. The party descended three very threatening and four less difficult rapids. The only tributary passed was the Yarmuk (Hieromax), coming in from the east, nearly as wide and deep as the Jordan. The current of the latter averaged eight miles an hour. The banks were fringed with the laurestinas, the oleander, the willow and the tamarisk; on the slope of the second terrace, a small species of oak and the cedar grew. From the banks to the elevated ridges on both sides, the grass and flowers were very luxuriant and beautiful. The trap continued on both sides, with occasional interruptions of limestone, sandstone and conglomerate. Dr. Anderson visited Umkeis, near the ancient Gadara, a ride of three hours and eleven minutes. The remains of Gadara occupy an eminence, with an inconsiderable valley on the west side, and a steep descent on the north, determined by the Wady el-Yarmuk. The ruins comprise a spacious area, covered with many broken columns, a large theatre, a smaller enclosure and a necropolis. The walls may be traced very distincly on the west, less obviously on the East. Lieut. Dale visited Beisàn (Seythopolis). "There were acres of building-stone, old walls, a theatre, etc. in good preservation. A few columns still stood in the valleys. Most of the present buildings seemed to be Saracenic, mills and khans.” April 13th. The general course was S. by E. Three large and seven small rapids were passed. There were four islands, and one stream came in from the S. E. The river averaged forty-five yards in width, four feet deep and five knots current. “There are evidently two terraces to the Jordan, and through the lowest one the river runs its labyrinthine course. From the stream, above the immediate banks, there is, on each side, a single terrace of low hills, like truncated cones, which is but the bluff terminus of an extended table land, reaching quite to the

base of the mountains of Haurân on the east, and the high hills on the western side." At 3. 16. P. M., Lieut. Lynch passed a long reach in the river, the first straight line in its entire course from the lake of Galilee thus far. The land company passed patches of wheat and barley, nearly ripe. On Friday night, April 14th, the boats were anchored near Wady Yabes, leading up to the ancient Jabesh Gilead. Twelve islands were passed, all but three small. Fourteen tributary streams were noted, all but four trickling rivulets. The lower plain was covered with a luxuriant growth of wild oats, and patches of wild mustard in full flower. The hills forming the banks of the upper terrace, assumed a conical form, with scarped and angular faces. In the latter part of the day, rock was less abundant, and alluvion began to prevail. Many fish and birds were seen ; among the latter, hawks, herons, pigeons, ducks, storks, bulbuls, swallows, etc. On the following night, April 15th, the party encamped a little beslow where Wady Rajib or 'Ajlûn enters from the east. A considerable stream was running down it. The party descended ten moderate and six bad rapids; three tributaries were noted, two of them quite small, also four large and seventeen small islands. The prevailing direction of the river was south and west. The velocity of the current ranged from two to eight knots; the average was about three and a half knots. The average width was fifty-six yards, and the average depth a little more than four feet. In the narrower parts the river flowed between high hills. In the morning the temperature of the air was 78°, and of the water twelve inches below the surface, 71°. The heat and the dazzling glare of the light were very oppressive. April 16th. The encampment at night was near an old Roman bridge, the ford of Damieh, where the road from Nâbulus to es-Salt crosses the river. In the afternoon, a bush, lodged fifteen feet up in the branches of an overhanging tree was seen. It was deciduous, and the green leaves of the early season were upon it. It must have been lodged by a recent freshet. On the borders of the stream the vegetation became more luxuriant, and of a brighter tint; on either side, back of the river, it was more parched and dull. The banks were of semi-indurated clay. The lower plain evidently became narrower, and the river often swept alternately against the hills. April 17th. The party reached the Pilgrims' ford, or the bathing-place of the Christian pilgrims, after having been fifteen hours in the boats. At 1. 20 P. M., the mouth of the Jabok (ez-Zurka) was passed; it flows in from E. N. E., a small stream, trickling down a deep and wide torrent bed. The water was sweet, but the stones upon the bare exposed bank were coated with salt. There was another bed, then dry, showing that in times of freshet, there are two outlets to this tributary. April 18th, at 1. 45 P. M., the party proceeded, and at 3. 25 entered the Dead Sea.

At 3. 12, the course was S. a long stretch, river seventy yards wide, left bank very low, covered with tamarisk, willow and cane; the right bank, was from fifteen to eighteen feet high, red clay with weeds and shrubs. At 3. 16, water brackish, but no unpleasant smell; banks red clay and mud, gradually becoming lower and lower; river eighty yards wide, and fast increasing in breadth, seven feet deep, muddy bottom, current three knots; one large and two small islands at the mouth of the river. Where it enters the sea, the river was 180 yards wide and three feet deep. The camp was pitched at night at the fountain 'Ain el-Feshkhah.

Twenty-two days' close examination was expended upon the sea and its shores, i. e. from April 19th to May 10th. We can only advert to a few of the interesting facts. The sea and shores were accurately examined in all directions. The distance in a straight line from the fountain 'Ain el-Feshkhah directly across to the eastern shore was nearly eight statute miles. The soundings gave 696 feet as the greatest depth. Another line was run diagonally from the same point to the S. E. to a chasm, forming the outlet of the hot springs of Callirrhoë. The bottom of the sea was found to be a level plain, extending nearly to each shore, with an average depth of 1020 feet all across. The bottom was blue mud and sand; and a number of rectangular crystals of salt were drawn up, some of them perfect cubes. In a line from the springs of Callirrhoë to 'Ain Turȧbah, at a depth of 1044 feet, the temperature of the water was 62°; at the surface immediately above it 76°. From 'Ain Jidy directly across to the mouth of the Arnon, the distance was about nine statute miles, the greatest depth 1128 feet. On the eastern side of Kashim, Usdum (Salt Mountain) one third of the distance from its north extremity, a pillar of solid salt was discovered, capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front and pyramidal behind. The upper or rounded part is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval pedestal, from forty to sixty feet above the level of the sea. It crumbles at the top and is one entire mass of crystallization. On the sea the tendency to drowsiness was nearly irresistible. The sensation, amounting almost to stupor, was greatest in the heat of the day, but did not disappear at night. A horse and a donkey, swimming in the sea, turned a little on one side, but did not lose their balance. A muscular man floated nearly breast high, without the least exertion. The Arnon (el-Mojeb) where it flows into the sea, was eighty-two feet wide and four feet deep. It runs through a chasm ninetyseven feet wide, formed by high, perpendicular cliffs of red, brown and yellow sandstone, mixed red and yellow on the southern side, and on the north a soft rich red. The chasm runs up in a direct line 150 yards, then curves gracefully to the S. E. A little north of the entrance of the

Arnon, on a beautiful little stream, were twenty-nine date palm trees. Wherever there was a rivulet, lines of green cane, tamarisk and an occasional date-palm marked its course. Zurka Main forms the outlet of the hot springs of Callirrhoë. The stream, twelve feet wide and ten inches deep, rushes with great velocity into the sea. Temperature of the air 77o, of the sea 78°, of the stream 94°. The chasm is 122 feet wide at the mouth and for a mile up. The sides are eighty feet high. Among the plants found on the western shore, between 'Ain el-Feshkhah and 'Ain Jidy, were the lily, the yellow henbane, the lamb's quarter (used in the manufacture of barilla), a species of kale, a single pistachia tree, and many tamarisks in blossom. In sailing round the southern part of the sea, many fatigues were encountered. On one occasion, at 8 P. M., the thermometer was 106°, five feet from the ground. It was more like the blast of a furnace, than living air.

V. BOHRINGER'S BIOGRAPHICAL CHURCH HISTORY.1

The entire volume, of which this is the closing section, contains 2074 pages. The plan of the work, as indicated by its title, is to give the history of the church in the form of biography. To this plan the author strictly adheres, giving us but little in the form of general remarks, and interspersing these remarks, as the occasions occur, in the lives he portrays.

The plan itself, though not strictly novel, is, we believe new in its application to the entire history of the church. We have had many separate works on the lives and times of distinguished individuals. We have also Cave's Lives of the Christian Fathers of the first three centuries; and likewise his Literary History, containing an extended notice of all the writers for or against Christianity, to the fourteenth century. Such writers also as the two Milners, have infused a vivid interest into their works by their extensive biographical sketches. But in none of these do we find an entire history of the church in the form of biography.

Böhringer, however, does not undertake to give us the lives of even all the great men in the church, but selects from the most distinguished such as had the greatest influence in shaping the life, doctrine, and polity of the church, or the most vividly reflected her image for the time.

This first volume, commencing with the age succeeding the Apostles, extends to the beginning of the seventh century; and embraces the following personages, which we give in their order: Ignatius, Polycarp, Perpetua, Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, Tertullian,

1 Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen, oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographi en, durch Friedrich Böhringer. Ersten Bandes vierte und letzte Abtheilung. Zurich. Ss. 426. 8vo.

Cyprian, Athanasius, Anthony, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Olympia, Leo, and Gregory the Great.

The spaces allotted to the different characters are very unequal. To Augustine, including his doctrines and those of his opponents, 675 pages; to Irenaeus, 166; to Origen, 100; to Perpetua (a martyr in Africa), as a representative of her sex in the first three centuries, 10 pages; to Olympia (a rich widow at Constantinople, about the age of nineteen, devoted her life and fortune to monastic piety, in the fifth century), 9 pages.

History in this form, if even tolerably well executed, cannot fail of possessing an interest for most minds, which it is impossible for even a Neander to infuse into it when presented in the abstract and philosophic form. And from the greater and more sympathetic interest it kindles, it will be all the better remembered and the more efficient by way of example, just as we find the fragments of sacred history. But, from its very nature, it can be neither so complete, nor so well balanced, nor perhaps so impartial. If the best characters be selected, we shall have too favorable a view of the church, if not also of the individuals themselves, the strong sympathies of both writer and reader embarking in the cause of the moral hero before us.

Such, to a large extent, should we think is the case with this history from the portions we have examined. This writer, like Milner, presents to us the fairest aspects of the early church; being also, like him and many others, disposed too implicitly to credit the stories of miracles in periods subsequent to the apostles. He writes, however, like a pious and fairminded man, and as much disposed to benefit the future as to rejoice in the past. Should his work be translated into English, it will be extensively read if it do not prove too voluminous. In research and philosophical acumen, he is not to be compared with Neander or Gieseler. He writes, however, not like a recluse, but like a pious, practical Christian, familiar with the common mind, just as might well be expected from his vocation as the pastor of a country parish in the canton of Zurich. The language and the structure of the sentences, unlike much of the German of the present age, are perfectly simple and lucid.

This volume embraces what the author regards as the period of the "ancient church," closing with the death of Gregory the Great, in 604. The next volume, as he informs us, will embrace the Middle Ages, beginning with the missionaries to Germany.

The author presents very extended analyses of the principal works of the authors whose lives are here given, and consisting extensively of quotations from those works. Hence the vast space allowed to the life of