A Diary of a Journey to the East |
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Author:
| Beamont, William |
ISBN: | 978-0-217-90861-0 |
Publication Date: | Feb 2012 |
Publisher: | General Books LLC
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | AUD $14.38 |
Book Description:
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20. From the day of my landing at Jaffa until to-day, there has not been a shower, nor with the exception of two days, a cloud in the sky. It has been almost unclouded sunshine, with an atmosphere so transparent, that objects more than twenty miles distant appear almost close at hand. The...
More DescriptionPurchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20. From the day of my landing at Jaffa until to-day, there has not been a shower, nor with the exception of two days, a cloud in the sky. It has been almost unclouded sunshine, with an atmosphere so transparent, that objects more than twenty miles distant appear almost close at hand. The mountains of Moab, more than thirty miles off, have been visible every day, and even the valleys which course down their sides, are distinctly discernible. But last night there was lightning upon the northern horizon, from which native observers predicted that we should have rain to-day, and this morning, with very little previous warning, clouds gathered in the sky, and shortly afterwards poured down torrents of mingled rain and hail, while a violent storm of thunder and lightning raged just over our heads. At the consul's encampment at Tarabsea, where it was said, a water-spout had burst, a stream rushed through the tents with such violence as nearly to wash them away, and the inmates took warning that they must remove into Jerusalem immediately. In little more than an hour, after cooling and refreshing the earth, the storm abated, the sun re-appeared, and the atmosphere, as if washed and purified by the rain, revealed the distant objects even more distinctly than before, and gave if possible increased brilliance to the sides of Moab. We walk on leather in the west, but here it is trodden on before its time, for the leather sellers spread their skins and hides in the streets for the passers by to walk upon, supposing that it makes the skins more pliant and flexible when wanted for use; but the leather resents this anticipation of its fate, and becoming slippery after rain, moves under the tread, and often lays the passen..