detached by a sudden thaw, and sliding down the rock, was launched, like a ship from the stocks, into the valley. It might be supposed, that such accidents would disgust the inhabitants of those mountains; but, besides that these happen seldom, they are compensated by an advantage, which makes the people prefer their perilous habitations to the most stable and fertile plains,the security they enjoy from the oppressions of the Turks. This security is esteemed so great a blessing by the inhabitants, that they have discovered an industry on these rocks, which we may elsewhere expect in vain. By mere art and labour, they have fertilized a rocky soil. Sometimes to gain the water, they conduct it by a thousand windings along the declivities, or stop it by dams in the valleys; while in other places, they support the ground, ready to crumble down, by walls and terraces. Almost all these mountains, cultivated in this manner, have the appearance of a flight of stairs, or an amphitheatre, every step of which is a row of vines or mulberry trees.' Our author 'computed from an hundred to an hundred and twenty of these gradations on the same declivity.'* In many places, their summits are flattened and stretched into vast plains, which reward the toil of the cultivator with luxuriant crops of corn and all kinds of pulse. Numerous rivulets of excellent water intersect these elevated regions, and diffuse on every side the richest verdure. The soil which covers the declivities, and the narrow valleys which separate them, is extremely fertile, and produces in abundance corn, wine, and oil, which D'Arvieux pronounces the best in Syria.+

These mountains 'consist of a hard, calcareous, whitish stone, sonorous like free-stone, and disposed in strata variously inclined.' This stone has nearly the

* Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 210; Dr Richardson's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 383, 404, 405.

+ Travels in Palestine, p. 80, &c.

Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. p. 153.

same appearance in every part of Syria: sometimes it is quite bare and peeled; such, for instance, is that of the hills on the north side of the road from Antioch to Aleppo, and that which serves as a bed to the upper part of the rivulet, which passes by the latter city. In travelling from Aleppo to Hama, veins of the same rock are constantly to be met with in the plain; while the mountains on the right present huge piles, which appear like the ruins of towns and castles. The same stone, under a more regular form, likewise composes the greater part of Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, the mountains of the Druzes, Galilee, and mount Carmel, and stretches to the south of the lake Asphaltites. The inhabitants every where build their houses, and make lime with it. Of this beautiful stone was the temple of Jehovah built, and the other splendid edifices with which Solomon adorned the capital of his kingdom. He had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore hewers in the mountains. And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundations of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers.'

Volney never heard that these stones contained any petrified shells in the upper regions of Lebanon: but he found between Batround and Djebail, in the Kesraouan, not far from the sea, a quarry of Schistus stones, the flakes of which bear the impressions of plants, fish, shells, and particularly the sea onion. The bed of the torrent of Askalon in Palestine, is also lined with a heavy stone, porous and salt, which contains many small volutes and bivalves of the Mediterranean. Pococke found a large quantity of them in the rocks which border on the Dead Sea. These are indubitable remains of the antediluvian world, and afford an additional proof, if any were needed, of the existence

* 1 Kings v. 15, 17, 18.

and prevalence of the deluge over the surface of our globe.

Iron is the only mineral which abounds in these mountains, and is found in those of Kesraouan, and of the Druzes in great abundance. Every summer the inhabitants work those mines, which are simply ochreous. Report says, there was anciently a copper mine near Aleppo, which Volney thinks must have been long since abandoned: he was also informed by the Druzes, that in the declivity of the hill formerly mentioned, a mineral was discovered which produced both lead and silver; but as such a discovery would have proved the ruin of the whole district, by attracting the attention of the Turks, they quickly destroyed every vestige of it.* These statements establish the accuracy of Moses, in the account which he gave his nation of the promised inheritance :- A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains thou mayst dig brass.'+ A different temperature prevails in different parts of these mountains; hence, the expression of the Arabian poets, That Lebanon bears winter on his head, spring upon his shoulders, and autumn in his bosom, while summer lies sleeping at his feet.

In the year 1574, Dr Rauwolf visited Lebanon; he proceeded from Tripoli with the patriarch of the Maronites, and walked through plantations of olive trees, which extend all the way to the foot of the mountain, through pleasant vineyards, and fields sown with barley and millet. As they passed through the woods, they were entertained with the songs of a variety of birds, and saw the hart bounding among the trees. Near the mountain were several villages, where they were regaled with wine, the produce of the mountain; it was white, and our author declares, better than any he had ever tasted. The sides of the mountain were moistened with numerous rills; and the heights were crowned

* Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 211.

+ Deut. viii. 9.

with trees of various kinds, among which he noticed the vine, two species of dwarf cedar, mingled with the styrax tree, which produces a fragrant gum, and sheds around it a refreshing odour. They ascended the mountain by a winding path cut into steps. From the top of the monastery, where the patriarch who accompanied him resided, he saw towards the east, the snowy peak of the Sannin towering above the cedars. The cedar is called the glory of Lebanon, and several of patriarchal longevity still remain to attest the authenticity of Scripture. Of these celebrated trees he found only twenty-four nearly in a circle, and two decayed with age. They are evergreens, have long stems, several fathoms in girt, and are, says Rauwolf, as high as our fir trees; they have very large arms, which bend the trunk, and injure the beauty of the tree; their branches shoot up straight, on which the cones, which are large and round, are placed perpendicularly, dis posed in rows at equal distances, with great regularity. These circumstances distinguish the appearance of the tree from that of all other firs, else it would very much resemble the larch, especially in the leaf.*

Rather more than a century afterwards, Mr Maundrell visited the mountains of Lebanon. Having pro ceeded about half an hour through the olive yards of Sidon, he and his party came to the foot of mount Libanus. They had an easy ascent for two hours, after which it grew more steep and difficult; in about an hour and a half more, they came to a fountain of water, where they encamped for the night. Next day, after ascending for three hours, they reached the highest ridge of the mountain, where the snow lay by the side of the road. They began immediately to descend on the other side, and in two hours came to a small village, where a fine brook, gushing at once from the side of the mountain, rushes down into the valley below, and

* Travels, p. 207.

after flowing about two leagues, loses itself in the river Letane. The valley is called Bocat, and seems to be the same with the Bicath-Aven of the prophet;* ‘I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain (rather the vale) of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden.' The neighbourhood of Damascus, and particularly a place near it, which, in the time of Maundrell, still bore the name of Eden, render his conjecture extremely probable. It might also have the name of Aven, which signifies vanity, from the idolatrous worship of Baal practised at Balbec or Heliopolis, which is situated in this valley.t

6

The beauties of Lebanon seem to have left a deeper impression in the mind of D'Arvieux. After travelling six hours in pleasant valleys,' says that writer, and over mountains covered with different species of trees, we entered a small plain, on a fertile hill wholly covered with walnut trees and olives, in the middle of which is the village of Eden.-In spite of my weariness, I could not but incessantly admire this beautiful country. It is truly an epitome of the terrestrial paradise, of which it bears the name. Eden is rather a hamlet than a village. The houses are scattered, and separated from each other by gardens, which are enclosed by walls made of stones piled up without mortar.'‡

'We quitted Eden about eight o'clock in the morning, and advanced to mountains so extremely high, that we seemed to be travelling in the middle regions

* Amos i. 5.

+ Maundrell's Journey, vol. i. pp. 48, 49.

Trav. p. 80. Dr Richardson proceeded from Damascus to visit Lebanon. After three hours travelling, he came to a very picturesque and remarkable pass called Sook, where the road is narrowed by the approach of the mountains on each side of the river (Barrady) and excavations are cut in the rock, on the righthand side, in places that seemed quite inaccessible without the help of a scaling ladder, or a basket. Some of the doors are formed with great care, and have buttresses on each side, and statues between them.-Travels, vol. ii. p. 500.