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ruins S. of Kedes, and overlooking the gorge of Wady Hendaj rom the N. I have formerly suggested, that possibly this spot fmay have been the Hazor of Scripture, which is twice mentioned as on the S. of Kedes; nor have I since found any more probable site.

We passed on to Kedes over the fine plain, in which, below the village, are some remarkable sarcophagi, and two ruined structures. The easternmost of these is of the Jewish type already mentioned. The situation of Kedes is splendid; but the water of its copious fountains is regarded as unhealthy, and the place was now deserted. We encamped for the night at the large village of Meis.

The next morning brought us to Hûnîn; the road affording on the way extensive views, as far as to Tibnîn on our left, and over the lake and plain of the Hûleh on our right. Hûnîn is evidently an ancient site; but there are no data by which to ascertain its ancient name. It lies in a notch of the ridge, looking towards the E.; while towards the W. a valley runs down from it to the Lîtâny. Our way now continued N. along the high ground, leaving Abil and Mutullah on our right, and Kefr Kily on our left, until we descended into the fine oval basin of Merj 'Ayûn. Crossing this, we came to Tell Dibbîn in its northern part, so called from a neighbouring village. There are remains of an ancient town at its northern base; and there seem to be good reasons for regarding it as the site of ancient Ijon. The Tell is ninety feet high.

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We here fell into the road from Sidon by the Jisr Khŭrdelah to Hasbeiya, and continued on over a high plain, till it descended into Wady et-Teim at the Khân. Here this valley opens out to a very fertile oval basin, full of tillage and fruit-trees. Three ters of an hour from the Khân brought us to the ford of the Ħasbâny, leading to Hasbeiya. The bridge is ten minutes higher up, and the great fountain some thirty rods above the bridge. The river was running with a fine full stream, coming wholly from the fountain. We passed up the rough and rocky Wady Busîs, and came in thirty-five minutes to Hasbeiya, situated in the S.W. quarter of the great amphitheatre which forms the head of that valley. This was on Thursday, May 20th.

Here the Rev. W. M. Thomson from Sidon was awaiting us, and Dr. Smith left me and returned to Beirût. But the exhaustion caused by rapid travelling during the excessive heat had brought on an illness, which detained me at Hasbeiya until the next Tuesday.

On that day (May 25th) Mr. Thomson and myself set off for Bâniâs by way of the chasm of the Lîtâny below Burghůz. There had been reports of robberies committed by Druzes in the vicinity

of Bâniâs; and we took the precaution to obtain a letter from the principal Druze Sheikh in Hasbeiya, who also sent with us three of his men. But we heard nothing more of robbers, though there was no question that the reports were true.

We struck first by Kaukaba over to the bridge of Burghůz. Below this bridge the river meets a ridge or spur running out from Lebanon, and cleaves it obliquely and almost lengthwise to its base. We kept along, without path, as near as we could on the top of the thin left-hand ridge above the chasm, to Belât. The depth below us, as we rode along, was from 1000 to 1200 feet; at Belât Mr. Thomson had, a few days before, found the height of the precipitous bank alone to be 800 feet by the aneroid. The whole chasm bears a great resemblance to that of the river Salzach at the Pass Lueg, on the way from Salzburg to Gastein. At Belât the chasm turns S.W. at a right angle, and becomes still more precipitous. After cutting thus through the ridge, the river again turns S. and flows on by Kul'at esh-Shukîf.

We now kept along by way of Dibbîn and Judeideh, visited again Tell Dibbîn, and then ascended the eastern hill to Khiyam, the chief place of Merj 'Ayûn, where we encamped. It commands a view both of the Merj on the W., and of the lower and more open part of Wady et-Teim, and the upper portion of the Hûleh, on the E. Here, as in all the region round about, the traveller has continually before him the lofty ridges and snowy summits of Jebel esh-Sheikh, the Hermon of Scripture. There are two summits, as here seen, of which the north-eastern one is the highest.

From Khiyam our course was to Tell el-Kâdy, fording the Hasbâny in its deep channel just N. of Ghujar on its E. bank. The bridge of that name is some distance farther down the river. Tell el-Kâdy is apparently the crater of an extinct volcano; portions of the rim are still visible. From under its S.W. side gushes out at once an immense stream of the purest water, while another smaller one rises within the crater and rushes down further S. through a break in the rim. These streams together form the middle and largest arm of the Jordan, called Leddân, equal indeed in the volume of its water to both the other branches.

From this point we made an excursion into the lower Hûleh, in order to ascertain whether there was any junction of the streams before entering the lake. We expected to traverse much marshy ground, and were surprised to find only a most beautiful tract of plain, superabundantly watered indeed by channels from the various streams of the Jordan, but not now miry; the whole was of exuberant fertility, like the Ghôr around Beisân. But the Hûleh exhibits far more tillage. We came first upon the stream from Bâniâs, and forded it twice in its windings; then to its junc

VOL. V.-NO. IX.

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tion with the Leddân, which comes down in two arms; and, lastly, further down comes in the Hasbâny. From this point, which is some distance above the lake, the river runs to the latter as one stream. We returned and pitched our tent at Bâniâs.

Bâniâs lies in the angle of the mountains, on a beautiful terrace, 500 feet higher than Tell el-Kâdy. The brow of the terrace is nearly twenty minutes W. of the town, and extends as far as to the great chasm of the Wady 'Asal coming down from Jebel eshSheikh. E. of the town runs up a high and thin ridge, which seems cut off from the shoulder of Jebel esh-Sheikh by the deep and wild gorge of Wady Khushâbeh, which comes out upon the terrace around the W. end of the said ridge. Just here, from under the lower extremity of this ridge, and in no direct connection with Hermon, bursts forth the famous fountain, of the purest and most sparkling water, sending forth a stream two-thirds as large as the Leddân. On a high point of the same ascending ridge stands the ruined castle of Bâniâs, the Kul'at es-Subeibeh of Arabian writers. On the S. side of the town comes down Wady Za'arah with a brook, which unites below with the stream from the fountain.

The following day we devoted to an excursion to the lake Phiala, now Birket er-Râm, returning by way of the castle. At first we passed up along Wady Za'arah, then in a straight course by 'Ain Kunyeh over the high ridge above that village, whence we again descended and crossed Wady Za'arah, here coming from the N.E., and sweeping round in a circuit through the ridge till it turns N.W. The lake is a short distance beyond, just two hours from Bâniâs, in a direction nearly E. by S. It lies in a depression like a bowl, 200 or 250 feet lower than the adjacent tract, and is not less than a mile in diameter. It was probably once a crater; the shores are everywhere volcanic. Millions of frogs and innumerable leeches are the tenants of its stagnant slimy waters. Some ducks were swimming on its surface, and a hawk was pursuing them.

We struck off now N.N.W., without path, to gain the top of the ridge before mentioned, crossing on our way the lower end of Merj Sheikh Yafûry, a little plain coming down S.W. from under the very base of Jebel esh-Sheikh, which here drops down at once precipitously from its south-western summit to this plain 3500 to 4000 feet. The plain forms the head of Wady Za'arah. Having gained the top of the ridge, we descended and passed along a lower neck or cross ridge extending from it to that on which the castle stands. On this, twenty-five minutes E.S.E. of the castle, we came to a grove of venerable oaks, among which is the tomb of Sheikh Othman Hazûry. This spot has also been assumed as the

site of ancient Hazor, but the ground is in its native state, and was obviously never built upon. This was the third Hazûr or Hazûry which I had visited, neither of which can possibly have been the Hazor of Scripture.

The castle is the most extensive and best preserved ancient fortress in all Palestine. It is very long, though narrow; and the eastern and highest part forms of itself a separate citadel, with walls and towers more massive and impregnable than the rest. It was originally built wholly of stones finely bevelled; and in the eastern portion, especially, there has been little change. The patchwork of the times of the crusaders is visible in many parts; but other portions of earlier ruins remain untouched. A very steep and rapid descent from the castle, down the S. side of the ridge and along its base, took us to Bâniâs in fifty minutes.

We returned next day (May 28th) to Hasbeiya. The road kept along the southern base of esh-Sheikh to the mouth or plain of Wady et-Teim, and then turned N. by E. In a little more than half an hour from this point we turned off and climbed for forty minutes the almost precipitous mountain on our right to a place of ruins called Kul'at Bustra. This is a singular spot; it was not a fortress nor a town, but rather a religious site, a collection of temples. These were small, indeed, and rude, but we made out not less than four distinctly, and there must probably have been more.

Our road lay by Râsheiyat el-Fukhâr, renowned for its pottery; and thence to Hibbarîyeh, situated at the mouth of the great chasm of Wady Shib'ah, where it issues from the W. side of Jebel eshSheikh. In this enormous gorge, high up in Hermon, lies the village of Shib'ah, which sends out its 25,000 goats to pasture throughout the higher parts of the mountain. In Hibbarîyeh, and fronting this magnificent chasm, stands a beautiful and wellpreserved ancient temple, built of large bevelled stones, some of them fifteen feet long. It is of the same general type with that at Deir el-Kul'ah, but less massive and less simple.

We came by 'Ain Jurfa to Hasbeiya, crossing the high ridge on the S. of the town. From the bed of Wady Shib'ah below 'Ain Jurfa we ascended 992 feet to the top of this ridge, and then descended 550 feet to Hasbeiya. These measurements had been made by Dr. De Forest with the aneroid a few days previously.

On the following Monday (May 31st) we started again on the way to Damascus, accompanied by Mr. John Wortabet. We crossed the bed of the Hasbâny above the fountain, where only a small thread of water was trickling among the stones, and ascended the ridge ed-Dahar, which divides Wady et-Teim from the

valley of the Lîtâny. Along the top of this ridge runs a path, which we took for an hour north-easterly, and then left it and descended obliquely to Yuhmur on the E. bank of the Lîtâny. Half an hour up the river from this village is the Kûweh, a natural bridge over the Lîtâny, at the bottom of a wild chasm. The road to it is now not more difficult than many others, and leads from it up to Jezzîn. The bridge appears to have been formed by the fall of rocks from above, and has some resemblance to the Oefen at the Pass Lueg. From the Kûweh we turned again obliquely to the ridge ed-Dahar, and came to Libbeiya on its eastern brow, and passed on to Neby Sufa for the night. Here is another temple not unlike that at Hibbarîyeh, but less well pre

served.

We came next day to Râsheiya, situated high on the northern flank of Jebel esh-Sheikh, and strictly upon the first or western ridge of Antilebanon. Hence we followed the great Damascus road for half an hour to 'Aiha, where also are the now scattered remains of an ancient temple. Hence we struck down across the fine round basin of Kefr Kûk to that village. This plain has no outlet, and becomes a lake in the rainy season. We then took another cross-road in order to reach Rukhleh, situated E. of the water-shed on the road which passes by 'Aiha. Here, in the deepest recesses of Hermon, is (or rather was) one of the finest ancient temples, massive, and yet simple and beautiful, with nothing of the later more florid style. The ground is strewed with its ruins.

We now turned about N.N.E. and came in a hour and three quarters to Deir el-'Ashâyir, situated on the upper plateau of Antilebanon, S. of Zebedâny. Here, too, is an ancient temple, more elaborate and ornate than that at Rukhleh, and standing on a platform. Here we stopped for the night.

The next morning Mr. Thomson left us to return to Hasbeiya and Sidon. Our road led along a shallow valley, through an open region, to the fountain and ruined Khân of Meithelûn, where a road from Beirût comes in, which passes through Wady elKurn. We came to Dîmâs; and followed the usual road by Mezzeh to Damascus. It is barren and dreary enough. The only point of interest on it is the view from the brow above Mezzeh ; and this is far inferior to the celebrated one from the Wely above Salihîyeh.

In Damascus it had been arranged by the missionaries that I should find a home in the dwelling of Mr. Robson, of the Irish Presbyterian Church, and that he would accompany me on my further journey. From him and his colleague, Mr. Porter, I received the kindest attentions. The American missionaries were

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