the whole Ghor and 'Arabah, would be exactly such a cause
as might spare a city on each side of its progress.

The whole subject still admits of much careful investigation on sundry
points; but, meanwhile, until geologists have given us more data from
which to form conclusions, I must take my stand upon the distinct record
of Genesis; that what was the Salt Sea when Moses wrote, had been the
Vale or Plain (Emek) of Siddim, containing cities with kings, who fought
and were subdued by Chedarlaomer upon that plain in the time of Abraham;
and that those cities were the same as those that were penally destroyed
soon after.

XII. ACROSS THE LEBANON.

I have traversed the Lebanon eastwards and southwards of Bayroot several
times; once in 1849; again in 1853; and also in 1855: but it seems
advisable to narrate the incidents separately, and although on two
occasions I passed over nearly the same ground, it will be curious to
compare or contrast those journeys, inasmuch as the circumstances were
dissimilar.

PART I.--1849.

The course of the first journey was as follows:--From Sidon on the
sea-coast we gradually climbed the Lebanon range eastward; then
descending by tortuous roads, and turning somewhat to the south, we
crossed to where Hhasbeya lies at the foot of Anti-Lebanon; after which
we followed the general direction of the streams southwards, and uniting
above the waters of Merom form the Jordan. Holding on at the western
side of the plain we arrived at Safed in Galilee.

_Oct._ 25_th_.--We left Saida for Joon, which had been for many years the
residence of Lady Hester Stanhope, and the vice-consul furnished us with
a kawwas who had been a servant of her ladyship.

Turned off from the high road of the sea-coast, at the river Awali, which
is believed by the native Christians to have been the limit of our Lord's
ministry on earth, when it is said that He went into "the coasts of Tyre
and Sidon."

We outflanked the rich scene of fruit plantations belonging to the town,
but picked blackberries, hips, and haws, from their hedges alongside the
runnels of water which supply those gardens.

On its approach to the sea the river Awali has two separate channels,
along either of which it flows in different years, according to the
volume of water at the beginning of winter, but never in both at the same
time.

Through lovely scenery we gradually mounted higher and higher, till
arriving at the village of _Joon_,