172 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 23, 
and runs northward for about a hundred and twenty miles, and 
terminates in the valley of the Nahr-el-Kebir, the ancient Eleu- 
therus. Its southern portion is called Jebel Riehdn, and is about 
5,000 feet in height. In this part of the mountain there are 
some deposits of copper ore, of which I have not seen specimens. 
Thus far, the mines have not been worked in modern times, and 
it is doubtful whether, with the scarcity of fuel for smelting pur- 
peses, they would now be profitable. 
At the latitude of Sidon the main chain of Lebanon begins 
at the twin peaks called Tom-at-Niha, a saddle-shaped peak about 
7,000 feet high, and runs northward in the form of a hog’s-back 
about 25 miles in length, and 6,500 feet high, almost denuded of 
trees. Nevertheless, at several points there are remnants of the 
ancient forests of the cedars of Lebanon, which once clothed the 
whole range. 
At the latitude of Beirut there is a depression of the chain to 
a pass about 5,000 feet high, over which goes the Beirfit and 
Damascus carriage road, and by its side the ancient road which 
probably was always the main highway from the coast to the 
valley of Coelesyria and to Damascus. 
Just north of the Damascus road, overhanging it, is Jebel 
Keniseh (Church Mountain), so called from its resemblance to 
the nave of an oriental cathedral. This peak is 7,500 feet high. 
Snow lies on its top until late in July. 
North of Jebel Keniseh is another depression of the chain of 
Lebanon toa pass about 6,000 feet high, and then the grand 
truncated pyramid of Jebel Sunnin, 8,500 feet high. This pyra- 
mid is triangular at the base and apex, the sides of the apex tri- 
angle being about three miles long. 
The strata of both these peaks, as of almost all the elevated 
regions of Lebanon, are nearly horizontal, and being quite bare 
of trees and almost of all vegetation except that growing in the 
chinks of the rocks, they are visible at a great distance, and form 
a striking feature in the landscape. 
The summits of both Jebel Keniseh and Jebel Sunnin, but 
especially the latter, are honeycombed with funnel-shaped de- 
pressions, some of them a thousand feet across and several hun- 
dred feet in depth, caused by the subsidence of the limestone 
strata in the centre. The snow collects in these excavations in 
very deep drifts, and the water which melts from them perco- 
lates through these funnels into immense reservoirs in the heart 
of the mountain, and bursts out at different levels down the 
mountainside. Two of these great springs, the Neba’-el- Leben, 
(the Fountain of Milk), and the Neba’-el-’Asal (the Fountain of 
Honey), gush forth at the base of the pyramid of Sunnin, as 
large as the largest Croton mains, and the ice-cold water leaps. 
