ON THE SEA COAST.

THURSDAY, April 6, 1816.-I was still so weak, that it required some exertion for me to leave my bed, and dress. As Dr. Chaboçeau was of opinion that my getting to the sea air upon the coast would contribute more to my recovery than any thing else, I was determined to lose no time in accomplishing it by easy journies, and accordingly prepared for departure. A mule driver had been engaged at five piastres per day, and a servant to accompany me as far as Seyda, at two piastres per day. The clothes which had been lent me were returned to their owner, and others purchased for the journey, and my horse had been well fed, reposed, and newly caparisoned. I paid to my medical friend, a Spanish doubloon in gold, to the convent ten Spanish dollars, and to the servants five, so that all our arrangements being completed, we mounted about 10 o'clock.

In quitting Damascus we came out westerly by the paved road which leads to Salheyah, and had as much reason as before to admire the gaiety and cheerful appearance of every thing we saw. The gardens were even more beautiful, as the verdure of the ground was fresher; the fruit trees were full in blossom, and every shrub had begun to send forth its young buds of green.

From Salheyah we ascended the hill which presses close on its western edge, by a well-frequented but steep road. The pass of Roboeh and the village of Meze near it, where the waters of the Barrady are thought to form the four rivers of Paradise, were below us on our left; while, from the summit of the hill itself, the view of all before us, on turning towards the plain of Damascus, was enchantingly beautiful. We halted in the narrow pass, which appears to have been cut through the rock near an open tomb of some Mohammedan saint on the top, to enjoy the extensive and delightful prospect; and, even after a full hour's stay there, we turned from it with regret.

From hence we went down over the N.W. side of the hill, going on a rugged road of limestone rock; and as a striking contrast to the verdant spring which we had just quitted in the plain below, all the mountains that intercepted the horizon like an amphitheatre, on every side were covered from the summit to the base with snow. It was nearly noon when we reached the small village of Dummar, peopled by Mohammedans, and seated on the N.E. of the Barrady, at a short distance only from its banks. The view of the valley through which this stream runs from hence, south-easterly to Roboeh, presents a romantic picture, in its high cliffs on either side, and narrow green vale between, filled with verdure, trees, and water.

From Dummar we ascended gradually for nearly three hours in a N.W. direction, passing over a bare tract of land, in which were only a few spots cultivated with corn; and throughout all our way across it, we met not a single passenger. About three o'clock we turned down to the S.W., through a valley of considerable

depth, but narrow. On our right we had lofty and rugged hills of lime rock, and on our left perpendicular cliffs of puddingstone, with many detached masses of the same scattered at their feet. The whole of the space between the enclosing hills, about a mile in breadth, was thickly covered with vines.

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At four we reached Beseemia, a small village in a most romantic situation, hemmed in by overhanging cliffs and rugged hills, with grottoes and large masses of severed rock all around while the stream of the Barrady, as broad and rapid as the Jordan at its fall, rushes through a thick and winding grove of poplars, watering fields, and meadows, and gardens in its way.

We followed from hence the course of the stream towards its source, going north-westerly for about an hour along its eastern bank, and I do not remember ever to have passed over a more delightful road, or one which presented so continued a series of romantic views as this.

It was about five o'clock when we reached the village of Feejy, so called from the river of that name which rises near it. We were furnished with a beurdee, or a passport, from the governor of Damascus to the sheikh, and hoped to have lodged at his village for the night. He professed his willingness to receive and entertain us, but declared that in all the village sufficient corn for our two animals could not be purchased at any price. We remonstrated and disputed for some time, but in vain, and were at last compelled to push on for another village a short distance off.

The inhabitants of Feejy, to the number perhaps of 500, are all Mohammedan. We found the men well dressed, and apparently much at their ease, and the females, both old and young, were all employed in spinning cotton at a wheel before their doors.

In about five minutes after our quitting the village, and going in a westerly direction, we came to the source of the waters called Ain-el-Feejy, and alighted there for a moment to observe it. The spring appears to issue from beneath an old arch, the roof or

highest part of which is but a few inches clear of the surface of the stream. The quantity discharged from this is considerable, and the water is of the purest transparency notwithstanding its being extremely agitated, as well as of the most excellent taste.

Immediately over the arch from out of which this large body of water springs, are the remains of an ancient building; and below by the side of the stream, the walls of another similar one, very both thought to have been temples. The lower one is about fifteen paces square within, consisting only of one apartment. It was entered by a gateway extending all the breadth of its front, excepting only the portals, which rise about two-thirds the height of the whole, and there terminate in a cornice exactly like the gates of the Egyptian temples. The stones of the building are very large, and the masonry solid and well executed, though certainly unlike Roman work. The gateway opens toward the south, and immediately opposite to it on entering, or in the centre of the interior face of the northern wall, is an oblong upright niche, as if for the reception of a statue. The spring of an arch is begun from the inner moulding, which runs round the whole of the interior on a level with the top of the portals of the gateway, and three layers of large stones still remain above it; but it appears from what remains never to have been wholly arched over.

The upper building, which is right above the arch from whence the water issues, is somewhat less than the lower one, being perhaps about twenty feet square, and of one apartment only. Here the portals of the gateway are carried up the whole of the height of the building; and on each side of the gateway, on the outer front, is a shallow square pilaster without a capital of any kind. It fronts the south, like the lower one, and has a still broader recess in the inner face of its northern wall, over which the rocky cliff above literally hangs. The base of the upper building is just on a level with the top of the lower one, which is distant from it about fifteen paces on the west. Between them both, and in the cliff beside the arch from whence the spring issues,

is a concave recess of excellent masonry, about fifteen feet high, and a proportionate breadth and depth, as if intended for a colossal statue of the river god. The stones are all large and of a coarse yellowish marble, and the workmanship is solid and good throughout; but the style is unlike Roman, and the general appearance very ancient.

The river Barrādy runs close by here to the eastward, between high and rocky hills, the strata of which lie in every direction, from nearly horizontal to quite perpendicular. The waters of the Ainel-Feejy, which are thought to be of purer quality, rush down here to the southward and join those of the Barrady at a few paces only from its own source, when they both run together through the romantic bed we had seen at intervals on our way, until they reach the pass at Roboeh, where they divide into what are called the four rivers of Paradise. We had seen nothing of the aqueduct supposed to have conveyed these waters to Palmyra, nor had received any information which might help us to understand whether these were the Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, which Naaman the Syrian thought better than all the waters of Israel, or not. (2 Kings v. 12.) On leaving Ain-el-Feejy, we followed the northern bank of the Barrady to the westward, through an agreeable valley, and came in about an hour to Deer-el-Mukarrin, a small Muslim village, where all the people were set in uproar by our demand of corn, of which they possessed none. tinued our way, therefore, on the same course, and in half an hour reached El-Ekfaire-el-Feite, a similar village, and, like all those we had yet passed, on the northern bank of the stream, at a little distance from the water. We alighted here, as it was now past sunset, and though we had still to contend about our corn, we obtained at last shelter and food in a house better built and cleaner than usual, with a chimney in the corner and other conveniences. The females here were all fair, ruddy, and handsome, wearing a white cloth over the head and shoulders, with a black border and tassels hanging from the temples. They were un

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