travel with some degree of comfort. I shall not cease to regret our more faithful Bedouins and their gentle dromedaries, so long as I am subjected to these barbarian modes of travel.

May 4. A part of our company left us this morning, to proceed directly to Sidon, having visited Tyre already, on their way from Beyrout to Jerusalem. We expect to meet them again at Beyrout.

By making great exertions, and through the special favour of our guides, we were able to recommence our journey at seven A.M. The country continues to be undulating and fertile-the valleys covered with wheat, and the mountain-sides with luxuriant pasturage. The summits are mostly wooded; a new feature in the landscape, which has exerted upon my feelings a very agreeable and even exhilarating influence, and added greatly to the beauty and apparent fertility of the region. The timber is a species of the oak, which is usually very small, though occasionally it is ten or fifteen inches in diameter. It has a thick, spreading top, and seldom is more than twenty-five or thirty feet in height. These trees are cut, and carried away upon horses and donkeys to Tyre, as well as the villages nearer by, to be used as fuel, for constructing the roofs of houses, &c. They also form an article of export to the towns along the coast. The trunks are generally left upon the ground when they exceed three or four inches in diameter, as they are then too heavy and unwieldy to be easily managed by the diminutive donkeys, and the women and girls, to whom the business of getting wood is pretty much left in this country. The olive, which was so abundant around Safet and the villages farther north, has nearly disappeared.

We passed near a small village on the right, called by our Jewish guide Kooroun, at a quarter before eight o'clock, and half an hour later a second on the left, which he denominated Beithoni. Continuing our route for a few min

424

FORTRESS OF TIBININ.

utes over a well-wooded limestone ridge, we came in sight of a large village, which occupied a hill directly before us, while farther to the right, and upon a still loftier summit, was a ruinous castle of great extent, and, from its commanding position, of very imposing appearance. The intervening region, and that to the right of the castle, are undulating, fertile, and cultivated. We were nearly an hour in reaching the base of the isolated mount, which we passed to the right through a deep ravine that divides it from another lofty hill on the east, which is also surmounted with what appeared to be a ruined fortress. We passed round the acropolis to the north side, where we obtained a good view of this ancient stronghold. It embraces the entire summit of the mountain, within a massive wall, which, as well as several towers by which it was strengthened, is in a very dilapidated state. A little farther west, another summit is occupied by ruinous bulwarks and towers. The large village, called, from the castle, Tibinin or Chibinin, lies in a valley between these two fortified hills. East of the principal works is another elevation, surmounted with ruins, and farther, in the same direction, beyond the narrow valley we had just traversed, is a fourth summit, the one I have already referred to as having ruins upon its top. These four summits are nearly in a line, extending not much less than two miles from west to east, and the extensivė military works with which they are crowned no doubt formed a strong and important fortress. It belongs to the age of the Crusaders.

Near an old khan, in the ravine referred to already, and at a little distance from the road, is a huge, cubical mass of stone, containing two depositories for dead bodies-more properly, a double sarcophagus. The lid is wanting. We soon after passed the small village of Hordia, which, we were told, was occupied by Jews. It was impracticable to test the correctness of this information by inquiring of the peo

VIEW OF THE SEA.

425

ple, as we had already left the valley when we heard this rather improbable statement.

We were often called upon to admire the beautiful landscape which opened before us as we ascended the successive ridges that lay across our route. It is a lovely and picturesque region, and our ever-changing elevation and direction constantly diversified the view and enhanced our enjoyment. A great number of gracefully-formed hills, clothed with rich pasturage to their summits, and sprinkled with low, spreading oaks-deep, fruitful valleys, covered with green fields of wheat, or freshly ploughed, the dark red soil contrasting strikingly with the verdure-filled an extensive region, extending to some lofty ridges that bounded our view.

At half past ten o'clock we had imperceptibly attained an elevation, which is, indeed, separated from the sea by intervening mountains and valleys, but which completely overlooked them all, and gave us a delightful view of one of the most romantic and magnificent regions I have seen in the East. The Mediterranean opened before us a vast and shining expanse of waters, upon whose sleeping surface two ships and a noble steamer were visible. The little town of Sur, the "ancient city" of Tyre, appeared as a dot upon the small, sandy plain, which pushes out into the sea beyond the dim outline of the shore. We were still twenty miles distant, and the whole intermediate tract, full of smiling, fruitful plains, and green, wooded hills, and dotted with villages that glittered in the sun upon their showy sites, was spread out before us like a map. Upon looking back, the eye ranged over a field of mountain scenery at once vast and rich. The snowy tops of Lebanon had often been in view during the day.

After making a long, and, in some places, steep descent from the mountain, we turned at eleven A.M. into a deep valley on our left, a nearer route to Solomon's Cisterns,

426

RUINS-AQUEDUCT.

which we wished to visit on our way to Sur. We soon found that our Jewish guide, at whose instance we had left the common road, was wholly ignorant of the pathless region upon which we had now entered. As to our muleteers, they had never been in this part of the country before, and made no pretensions to any acquaintance with it. In this situation, we were unable to obtain information as to the names of the villages, and other objects which we met with on our route. The valleys along which we passed were more deep and narrow than those we had been accustomed to in the higher mountains. They were all covered with tall grass, as were the steep hillsides on either hand. Cultivation was less extensive, and there were fewer flocks of sheep and goats than might have been looked for in so fertile a region, and, withal, so near a seaport. We passed in sight of a number of small villages, but at a distance from our route. Of one only, Zwyah, we obtained the name from a peasant. It was on our left, upon a hill overlooking a fruitful vale.

Just as we were passing out of the mountain region into the opening plain, which extends hence to the seashore, we came to an immense pile of massive stones, unhewn, but squared, and well adapted to the construction of a military work, of which I concluded they were the remains. Several foundations of what seem to have been towers are nearly entire. Everything else is in a state of indescribable disorder, which points to an earthquake as the probable agent employed in the overthrow of this ancient structure.

At half past two o'clock we passed under a ruinous aqueduct of Saracen architecture, which once conveyed water to a mill; eight pointed arches are now entire. The side of the plain next the mountain region rises into a number of ridges, covered, for the most part, with a rich soil, but occasionally developing bare limestone ledges of considerable extent. In several places we crossed the

paths which had led from populous villages or valleys among the mountains to ancient Tyre. Their direction over these masses of rock is marked by tracks one and a half or two feet in depth by a width of not more than ten or twelve inches. They were evidently worn by the feet of the asses and horses, upon which merchandise and travellers found their way in olden time, as at present, to the "ancient city."

We pitched our tents some time before sunset, near a small hamlet, distant from the Cisterns of Solomon about half a mile. We had wished to encamp close to those ancient monuments, but our muleteers were not so minded. They even attempted to stop some time earlier, just on the edge of a field of wheat, but the owner, who happened to live near, came upon them with so many loud remonstrances and furious gestures that they concluded to go farther. We finally halted in a field of high grass, near a copious stream of water, that was conducted across the plain for the purposes of irrigation. Just by was an extensive and flourishing orchard of mulberry-trees, with houses for the silkworms, constructed of reeds, in the style which prevails about Beyrout, and, I believe, in most other parts of Syria. I was not unprepared for the rest which our people so ungraciously compelled us to enjoy. The increasing heat of the weather, with my constantly diminishing strength, made even a short day's ride over the hills sufficiently fatiguing, and rendered the prospect of a speedy termination of our journey very agreeable.

THE SOIL OF PALESTINE.

We had now taken our leave of the Holy Land, and had entered the narrow domain of the ancient Phonice. The boundary of the two states was hardly more than five miles distant from Tyre. In passing from Idumea to Jerusalem, and thence to the Sea of Galilee and the shore of the Medi