Transcribe Ward, Henry A. Letter to Orton, James (1855-07-25)

[another hand- 313 312] </u Paris . July 25th 1855 My dear Orton

  As I think on the one hand of how much

I wish to say to you, and in the other how little time I have for it, my mind alternates as to whether this sheet is too small or too large. I will however commence to write you what I can to send tomorrow morning to Liverpool for the "Baltic."

  We returned yesterday in good health & spirits from

our Eastern tour. I wrote you last from Cairo just as we were starting off upon the desert. Of that trip I can tell you but little at present. We went to Suez. crossed the Red Sea. visited "Marah" ( of which we filled a bottle), found the shore to abound in valuable shells, coral, & Echinderms. followed it for 3 weeks till we reached the southern point of the peninsula then returned north through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai with two camels loaded down solely with specimens. We were forced to omit Petra and strike directly north across the desert to Jerusalem We accomplished this in 18 days. 16 of which were monotonous and the other two enlivened by our being stopped & robbed (with a comparatively small loss however (except to our honor) half a dozen times by the rascally Bedouins, & by our seeing the old town of "Hebron" stand a seige of 24 hours from 500 of them, with about 50 killed & wounded upon either side. We saw all about Jerus - alem, the Mts. of Olives & Calvary, the Dead Sea & the Jordan. Bethany, Jericho & c. It is very dangerous to visit the northern