September 19 Thursday – Sam and group left Ain Mellahah at 7 AM and camped that night at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee.

At noon we took a swim in the Sea of Galilee—a blessed privilege in this roasting climate—and then lunched under a neglected old fig-tree at the fountain they call Ain-et-Tin, a hundred yards from ruined Capernaum. Every rivulet that gurgles out of the rocks and sands of this part of the world is dubbed with the title of “fountain,” and people familiar with the Hudson, the great lakes and the Mississippi fall into transports of admiration over them, and exhaust their powers of composition in writing their praises. If all the poetry and nonsense that have been discharged upon the fountains and the bland scenery of this region were collected in a book, it would make a most valuable volume to burn [IA Ch. 47].

Sam’s article “Americans on a Visit to the Emperor of Russia” dated Aug. 26 ran in the New York Tribune [McKeithan 142-150].