ers and castles. In the northern part, they form a single range, separating the great basin of the Orontes from the maritime district, which is watered by the streams (rivières de côte) that flow down their western declivities. But in latitude 33° 20′, where the mountain-range assumes its highest elevation, it branches off into two, Libănus and Antilibănus, which, as formerly mentioned, inclose the basin of the Leontes. Nearly one degree farther South, the eastern chain Antilibanus also forks: one of the branches running directly south, parallel to the line of coast, and seldom farther from it than 20 miles; the other taking a S. E. direction, and skirting the Desert. These two mountain chains inclose the wide valley of the Jordan, and uniting again to the south of the Dead Sea, form a basin, which, unlike most others, has no opening or outlet.

The conformation of the country now described, gives rise to the great diversities of soil and climate which Syria exhibits,-the oppressive heats and extreme humidity of the maritime districts;-the healthful freshness of the inland and mountainous regions, produced by the snowy tops of Lebanon, and the height of the general level;-and the dry heats and dismal aridity of the country bordering on the desert, and of the greater part of Judea itself.

There are numerous traces in this country of volcanic action. When Strabo tells us (lib. xvi. c. 2.) that thirteen flourishing cities are said to have existed in the valley now filled by the lake Asphaltītes, it is probable that he is only recording an imperfect tradition of the catastrophe we read of in sa

cred history and the smoke and pitch that still rise to the surface shew that the subterraneous fire is not yet extinct;—a notion which the frequency of earthquakes in Syria at the present day seems to confirm.

HISTORICAL EPOCHS.-As the country just described never formed one separate and independent state, it will be sufficient to note a few of the remarkable periods of history connected with it. Such are, 1. The various events of sacred story from the time of Abraham to the commencement of the Christian era. 2. The commercial greatness of Phoenicia during the flourishing times, of SIDON first, and then of TYRE. 3. The taking of ancient Tyre, called afterwards Palae-tyros, by Nebuchadnezzar, (B. C. 572,) and of insular Tyre by Alexander the Great, (A. U. 422, B. C. 332.) 4. The taking and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, (A. D. 70.) The modern history of Syria is included in that of the Turkish Empire.

In keeping our course S. from Rhinocolura, we pass through that portion of ARABIA which was called PETRAEA, not from the rocky nature of the soil, but from the town Petra, chief city of the ancient Nabataei.

We are thus brought into contact with a part of the world, which, though very imperfectly known to the ancients, as it still is, even in our day, is not without interest to the classical reader, for a reason that will presently appear.

VIII.

ARABIA

Is the name given in ancient and modern times to a vast peninsula lying between the parallels of 12° and 34° N. Lat., and 32° and 60° E. Long. It contains about 1,000,000 of square miles, covering an extent of the earth's surface equal to Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany united. By far the greater part of this space is an arid irredeemable waste of sandy desert. Some portions of the sea-bord and a few Oases on the Sinus Arabicus and Mare Erythraeum produced in considerable abundance balsam, aloes, myrrh, casia, frankincense, and other odoriferous substances, which were in request among the luxurious population of Imperial Rome. Hence prevailed exaggerated notions of the wealth of a country, which, while it provided such superfluities, was destitute of the means of comfortable subsistence. To these productions, then, may be traced the allusions to Arabia as a sort of earthly paradise; and hence the very inappropriate application of the epithet FELIX to one of the poorest and most wretched countries on the face of the globe.1

1 The following quotations may be taken as examples of the omne ignotum pro magnifico :

Without dwelling longer, therefore, on this terra parum cognita, we return to the sea-coast; and taking care, as we proceed southward, to keep on our right hand, and so steer clear of, 'that Sirbonian bog, Where armies whole have sunk,' we reach at last the eastern branch of NILUS, the NILE, the river, and the only river of AEGYPTUS.

Quid censes munera terrae ?

Quid maris extremos Arabas ditantis et Indos ?

Urantur pia tura focis, urantur odores,

HOR. EPIST. 1. 66.

Quos tener e terra divite mittit Arabs.-TIBUL. II. 2. 3.

Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides

Gazis, et acrem militiam paras

Non ante devictis Sabæae

Regibus.-HOR. CARM. 1. 29. 1.

Plenas aut Arabum domos.—IB. II. 12. 24.

Intactis opulentior

Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae.-IB. III. 24. 1.

nec

Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto.-IB. EPIST. I. 7. 35.

gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambick, off at sea, north-east winds blow
Sabaean odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the Blest; with such delay

Well pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league
Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.

MILT. PAR. LOST, IV. 156.

There is poetical truth at least in the last passage quoted, for the south-east coast which Milton speaks of, where the tribe Sabaei lived, is that which chiefly abounds in sweet-smelling gums and spices.

IX.

AEGYPTUS.

EGYPT is the north-east portion of the great peninsular continent of AFRICA, situated between the Tropic of Cancer (23° 30′) and 31° 30′ N. Latitude, and between 30° and 35° E. Longitude.

There is perhaps no part of the world out of Italy and Greece, to which allusion is more frequently made by the poets and orators of antiquity than to Egypt; but no ancient writer who is not a professed geographer goes much into detail, or mentions more than one or two of its towns and localities. The singular nature of the country, the immemorial existence of the Pyramids, the dim tradition of a very remote antiquity, the absence of rain, the mighty cataracts and periodical inundations of the river, and above all, the unexplored, and as the ancients thought, inexplorable fountain-head of the Nile which the river-god studiously concealed from mortals,-all combined to throw a charm of sublimity and interest over the whole, which captivated the imagination both of the poet and his readers. Hence the frequent question, so strikingly put by Tibullus when he asks,—

NILE PATER, quânam possum te dicere causâ,

Aut quibus in terris, occuluisse caput ?'-1. 8. 23.

But the sculptural and architectural remains of un