off the rain, now beginning to fall. In the distance, upon an angle in the coast, we see steam arising from the rocks to a height of twenty feet, resembling the smoke and spray from the head of a whale when spouting. On approaching, we find a cavity in these wave-worn rocks, similar to the one in Beirut, through which the water is forced by the approaching billows. Farther on another is seen, but smaller; and the hissing sound can be heard at a great distance. Presently we descend a projecting ras (promontory), and immediately enter upon a plain of sand of a yellow hue, running up into the hills and mountains for some distance; and over the plain comes with the gentle evening breeze a sudden fragrance of some blossoms which we have known before. It seems wild, yet in the little round yellow furze blossoms on the long and delicate-leafed branch we recognise the beautiful and fragrant mimosa.

We now arrive at the bank of a creek, flowing down through the plain, the apparent depth of which causes us to halt; and after the arrival of our baggage, we plunge in, finding it only knee-deep to our horses and easily forded. This is the Arab Nahr er Auly, pronounced by the Arabs as if the first syllable of the following word was accented thus-d-wa-ly and supposed to be the ancient Bostrenus.

It is now but a short distance to Sidon. The sun has already set, and in the dimness of evening four horsemen

which furnishes the India ink, so called); and the colour, moreover, would suffer in delicacy by being crushed out of the animal, commingled with its blood and juice. Hence, while this shell may pos sibly have contained the animal, we think that neither the facts nor the nature of the colour sufficiently prove that this murex was the source. There is little doubt that additional and decided information will yet be obtained in reference to the character of this dye and of the animal that furnished it.

The family of purpurifera is divided into eleven genera, which comprised in 1823 from one to two hundred species. All those which have been dissected show a vesicle filled with a colouring liquid. The species which has served as a type to the genus Purpura, called the Purpura patula, is found in the Mediterranean. It is from this animal that it is thought the purple of the ancients was made; but since the introduction of the cochineal it is no longer used.

might have been seen galloping over the sea-border of this plain, the waves rolling in and breaking nearly at their horses' feet, while, regardless of mules and baggage and the scenery, which night is fast shrouding in darkness, they rapidly press on. They at last rein up at the walls and gate of Sidon. Everything is dim, silent, and desolate, and a voice echoes in its demand for entrance. After considerable knocking, with sharp questions and answers, in which all are forced to join, they gain admission through a musty and creaking gate, and pass into a darkness which gives a romantic uncertainty to the age and form of the solemn old walls and turrets, permitting a fancy which likens the strangers to knights in the times of the Crusades entering some haunted and silent hall after a midnight adventure. A flickering light, but slightly protected from the breeze by a dark hand, reveals to the few spectators a doubtful stairway, at the foot of which the horsemen dismount. They throw off their cloaks, ascend some twentyfive stone steps, and are in the piazza of the French khan, which appears somewhat like a convent-by which name it is sometimes erroneously called. At one door they knock and ask if they may have shelter for themselves and baggage. A surly answer comes, "No! no!" So entering another room, in twenty minutes the muleteers arrive; and amid bed, chairs, and baggage, a table is set, coffee and bread and butter take the place of a more plentiful repast in the future, and, with hearts filled with gratitude to him who has thus far guided and protected them, they are soon asleep in the old castle-like khan of Saida, the ancient Sidon.

CHAPTER VI.

SIDON-ITS MISFORTUNES AND PRESENT RUINS.

THE name Sidon-in the Hebrew Tsidon or Zidon-suggests the inference that the name of Canaan's first-born son might have indicated his pursuits and been given to him accordingly. We find in several scriptural passages that in very early times men devoted themselves to certain characteristic employments. Abel was a keeper of sheep; Cain a tiller of the ground; Tubal Cain," instructor of every artificer in brass and iron ;" and as Zidon signifies a fisherman, it is not improbable that Sidon received a name from his success in that employment, and choosing this place, which projected into the sea, as his residence, named it after himself. Thus the two apparently varying opinions as to the origin of the name of the town-the one of Jus tin, from "fishing," the other of Josephus, from "Sidon," Canaan's son-may be found to agree.

Its name occurs in the Pentateuch,-first in Gen. x. 19; and in the classics-in Homer several times. The name of Tyre occurs in neither, and not in the Scriptures till Joshua -xix. 29. Hence it is supposed to have been younger than Sidon. Sidon must have been a remarkable place, honoured of all during those early centuries until, 720 B.C., the Assyrian Shalmaneser subdued it to the Assyrians and Persians ; for Strabo says that of old it was noted for its advance in philosophy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, and the arts; and, 1000 B.C., Solomon's opinion of the inhabitants was that there were none that had the "skill to hew timber like to the Sidonians" (1 Kings v. 6); and though this city

ENTRANCE to the SEPULCHRES of the KINGS of JUDAH
TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

This is the finest specimen of sculpture existing in or around Jerusalem. The entrance is through an opening cut out of the solid rock into a spacious court cut down into the same rock. Over the portal which leads from the western wall of this sunken court to the Sepulchral Chambers, the remains of fine carving, large clusters of grapes, garlands of flowers, &c., are still to be seen.-See also Notes pages 315, 316.