CHAPTER XIII.
The Lake of Gennesaret, also called the Sea of Galilee, lies to the east of Nazareth, where the land makes a gradual descent, and where, among the hills and the fertile plains, pleasant villages are situated.
The mountains of Naphtali, which in some places rise up steeply from its banks, were clothed with herbage in the days of David.

But gradually, as stranger peoples cultivated them, fertility descended to the hills and valleys.
Near where the Jordan flows into the sea, on the left of the river under the sandy cliffs of Bethsaida, a small cedar forest, the seeds of which may have been blown thither from Lebanon, grows close down to the shore of the lake.

A fisher-boat, rocking in the shade on the dark waters, was tied to one of the trees.

The holes in it were stuffed with seaweed, the beams fastened with olive twigs.

Two tall poles crossed were intended for the sail, which now lay spread out in the boat because the boatman was sleeping on it.