distance Tyre itself rises plainly in sight, stretching out into the sea. At ten minutes before seven o'clock we come to the following bridge and water-course, with a stream five or six feet wide, forming the Abu l'Aswad.

I have sketched it because it is interesting for its unbroken arch of thirty-five stones, being quite thin, as fragile in appearance as represented, the pressure downward keeping the stones in their places. We passed through the current and onward. For some time we could see a yellow discoloration upon the sea, occasioned by the stream of some river mingling with the blue waters of the Mediterranean; and at twenty-five minutes before eight we found the cause in the Leontes, called Kasimiyeh, or "the divider," probably from the fact that it is the separating line between two districts.' Above the point from which it issues from the Valley of Buka'a it takes the name of Litany, which is supposed to be a derivative from Leontes.2 We have traced this river

The Belad es Shukif on the north and Belad Besharah on the south. 2 Robinson, Bibl. Res., gives the history of the name, vol. iii. 409.

186

FIRST UNBROKEN BRIDGE.

before, (p. 158.) The guides pronounced the word Kasimiyehas if it was "kathmee-e." The river is about forty feet wide, flowing deep and strong along a channel which winds exceedingly just before reaching the sea. We crossed it on the only perfect bridge we have yet seen, and which, from the history of the bridges thrown over this river, must be modern, or since 1738, as a traveller found a bridge here then of two arches,1 and this has but one, presenting the following appearance.

An arch on the left seems to have existed as on the right, and both were pointed, only the centre arch being circular. Two marble shafts are worked into the wall on each side of the right-hand small arch.2

1 Pococke, in 1738, ii. 84. A new bridge is described by Turner as being in this place in 1815,-formerly one of four arches. It was described by Maundrell and D'Arvieux about 1660. See Rob. Res. iii. 409.

The bridge I should think was thirty feet wide; and my horse took twenty-four steps of the forefoot in passing over, which on measurement made it about sixty feet. Crows appear in large numbers; and our Arabs at this place, as on a former occasion, used the Arab ng, y, which is a difficult sound; and yet, though pronounced in the Hebrew by many with the

PROBABLE GEOLOGICAL SUBSIDENCE.

187

Here we meet with great quantities of the bulb-root which the Arabs call the wild onion. It spreads over acres of the rich land around, has no odor of the onion, and, on examination, appears to be of that variety of liliaceæ known as the squill, so much used in medicine,1 -though, from the absence of flowers, we could not be certain. The thistles are rank; and the prettiest variety is seen in the plate of flowers. The oleander (Nerium) is in rich profusion, exhibiting fine flowers. At half-past eight o'clock we obtain another sight of Tyre, about three miles off; and at the same time we are passing fragments of polished marble and pieces of pottery, and occasionally we find the rock has been hewn into a variety of forms. There is evidently a basis-rock along this shore, which has undergone some local change, perhaps a subsidence; for it has been cut away and prepared for foundations to houses, which, however, had the sea always preserved the same relative level, would have been uninhabitable. In some places, excavations of a few inches disclose foundations; and there are fragments of hewn marble within so near the water that they are washed by every high wave.

At twenty minutes after nine we pass a rivulet which comes from under a bank, and, five minutes after,

same sound as, was doubtless pronounced after with the same sound as that of the Arabic guttural. I am informed by Dr. Leeser, of the synagogue Mikve Israel, Philadelphia, that, according to the Talmud, no one was allowed to read the Law who could not make the proper difference between the and . The Arabs recognise the sound in the cry of the crow, and call the bird by a root-form of the word used in the Scriptures to designate the crow.

1 Scilla maritima.

188

VIEW OF ANTI-LEBANON.

another, several feet wide; and ruins and fragments are met with constantly. For some time back we have seen snow upon the ranges of Lebanon, five peaks of which are easily counted; and now, from a point a mile off from Tyre, there is a position, somewhat elevated, from which a splendid view of the eastern range, or Anti-Lebanon, can be had, enabling us to see that the course is northeast, and that some of the summits are covered with snow. At about three miles from Tyre we could see a dome-like mountain, which our guide assured us was Mount Tabor. We stopped when about a mile off for about ten minutes; and the following view was

port, one with French colors. The houses, gates, five palm-trees, and minaret are sketched with a minute

ARRIVAL AT TYRE.

189

regard to reality; we need not, therefore, describe the place any further than to add that the city-gate in the wall is on the left of the view, under two unequal openings, and that there is a deep excavation in the earth somewhat farther to the left. Rocks appear jutting out into the sea, as in the view.

We skirted the shore, and

at about twenty-five minutes after nine o'clock were within the walls of Tyre.