several feet diameter. I have in my possession a shell (ostrea) which I obtained at Beirût, and which was taken near the summit-ridges of the Lebanon, which, though fossil, exhibits in part all the rich and pearly hue of recent shells.1

In the fall of 1854, a Turkish gentleman hired some Arabs to dig a foundation for a villa near Sidon. One of them struck against an earthen vessel buried among the ruins; and, to the amazement of the Arabs, out rolled about fifteen hundred pieces of gold. They were coins of the time of Alexander and of Philip, and probably had been buried for safe-keeping, but the ownerfrom exile or sudden death-was never able to make use of it or to reveal its hiding-place. The Arabs distributed the prize among themselves; but the governor of the pashalic of which Sidon is a city obtained news of the discovery and possession of the princely treasure itself, which he soon melted down, and, so far as I have known, the antique specimens, so much more precious for their history than for their intrinsic value, were lost, except a single specimen, of which I have had an engraving most carefully made, and which is presented herewith.2

1 There are forty varieties of fossil shells which have been first seen in Syria, and perhaps are unknown elsewhere. In all, there have been found up to the present time one hundred and ninety-three varieties, and of which there are in my possession drawings or the original specimens. Many of my first collection are missing, which might have increased the number to at least two hundred. Others who have been more careful to gather and retain than myself have additional varieties. So that it fully appears that this region would be a rich soil for the geologist, and one which Dr. Anderson in his official report has only opened to interest.

2 For this specimen I am indebted to J. Hosford Smith, Esq., former

166

COINS OF ALEXANDER.

AEZANARY

Several items in the history of the coins of this country add greatly to the interest of both classical and Biblical studies. I have presented them in the Appendix, No. II.

consul at Beirût, and now Ottoman consul at New York, who obtained it from the vice-consul at Sidon and gave me the history of its discovery. It is a Greek stater, (σтarp, standard,) struck in the early times of Alexander the Great. On the OBVERSE is the helmet-head of Pallas, ornamented with a serpent, the face very perfect and noble in contour, the ear not exposed as it is in several of the staters I have seen. The REVERSE, a victory with a wreath in one hand and standard in the other, with the monogram in front of the figure and under the hand holding the wreath. The superscription is simply AAEZANAPOY, (money of) ALEXANDER. The weight of the stater averages 132.5 grains, (distinctly shown in Dr. Wm. Smith's Roman and Grecian Antiquities, in loco,) though sometimes made four and a half grains more. (Mionnet Med., Paris, 1854, sup. iii. p. 260, says 2 gros 17 grs.,-137 grs.) The value, £1 3s. 6d., ($5.68.) They are as fresh as if from the mint yesterday, being almost virgin gold, with no alloy but silver, and that so exceedingly small in amount as to be considered accidental.

LEAVING SIDON.

167

CHAPTER VII.

SAREPTA AND THE COUNTRY BETWEEN SIDON AND TYRE.

BEFORE We commenced our wanderings, we informed Hanna that it was our intention to leave for Tyre today; but on our return we found our baggage where we had left it and some Arabs cosily enjoying themselves in the midst. Our dragoman is shrewd; and we begin to suspect that a strong temptation to delay is presented to any dragoman when a traveller offers to hire him by the day. Hanna is promised six dollars a day to be captain-general of our whole troop, to go where and when we wish, to provide every thing, do all our cooking, packing, guiding, and fighting, and on extra occasions and routes to expect some extra payment. Delay is now certainly a speculation on his part alone, as we are ready to start. Hanna casts up an imploring look to the clouds and is greeted by a few drops of rain. He thinks it will rain. So do we. After considerable controversy, we are under way, and leave the khan-gate at ten minutes past eleven. We travel southward. In twenty minutes nothing can be seen of Sidon but the old castle and fort of Louis, of which we have already spoken, and which

168

MIMOSA AND ORANGE TREES.

seems built so as to form part of the southern wall. Our way is over a coast-plain, and is well defined by the tracks on the road. And now our course is south-southwest; and in fifteen minutes we cross the dry Wady Senik, not containing as much water as the road. We left the city with a beautiful rainbow before us; but rainbows only promise rain,-which is coming rapidly upon us. One or two miles off, on our left, are signs of a larger growth of trees than any we have hitherto seen on our journey. We soon enter a grove of mimosa-trees, closely meeting overhead, and several hundred feet in length.1 They form a charming contrast to the desolate hills we have passed. A short distance farther we meet the delicate fringe-like tamarisk, called ittel in Egypt, spoken of on page 122; and then appears the fig in abundance, and a variety of cane; and at twenty minutes before twelve o'clock we pass a beautiful and fruited orange-grove on the right, of a dark and healthful green, rich in foliage and in golden fruit, irrigated by water drawn by the ancient wheel at the cistern.2

1 The leaf and ball-like blossoms are represented in the plate of birds. It is the Mimosa Farnesiana, Linn.

2 Every revolution of the chain of buckets causes as many waves of water to run down the stream to the garden as there are buckets on the wheel so there are a series of regular wavelets or pulsations. And, as we stand looking at the pulsations running off into the various channels, the sixth verse of Eccles. xii. suggests to us the thought that, whether Solomon understood the circulation of the blood or not, he could not have chosen a more appropriate figure to express the pulsating circulation of the blood than that drawn from "the wheel at the cistern." In Egypt this is the general mode of irrigation, in connection with little channels or streams, which are turned frequently into a parched portion of the garden by the

ROMAN MILE-STONE.

169

We now enter upon a larger plain. The sea rolls in, wave after wave, on the right, and about a mile to the left are the mountains; while the rich and level soil stretches onward for several miles. The land is freer from rocks and darker than we have yet seen it; and the region must be delightful in the spring and early summer. At twenty minutes before twelve o'clock, there are before us patches of trees-one consisting of about sixty—in an enclosure. The mountains are terraced like the hills on the Rhine. At eight minutes before twelve o'clock we pass a fragment of a prostrate column, some ten feet long, having the names of IMPERATORES CESARES, L. SEPTIMUS SEVERUS, PIUS PERTINAX, ET M[ARCUS]. AURELIUS. The burden of forty-five words, as far as sand and corrosion would permit, was that these emperors had renewed both the roads and the mile-posts of this province.1 About two minutes after we crossed a water-bed about one hundred feet wide, though with only about three or four feet width of running water. And now, because of rocks and stones, all road disappears, and no one can recognise any pathway what

hand, or even the foot, by simply breaking down some little barrier; and it is probable that to some such custom allusion is made in Ps. cxxvi. 4:— "Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South;" i. e., turn us as the streams are turned toward the land that mourns for us.

1 Travellers have contented themselves so often by supposing that so many have copied the inscription, that the probability is we have no correct copy whatever. No two that I have seen agree. De la Roque disagrees with Maundrell; and, if I was correct in my own, then there is an error in La Roque's; and yet, laboring under the same impression that others had made repeated copies, I was not so careful as to be positive in regard to the accuracy of my own. It may be that different columns vary in their inscriptions; and, if so, there is greater reason for preserving the words.