32 
Motes on a Sojourn tn the Hebvant. 
By T. KNow.es, M.A. 
(Presidential Address delivered November 18th, 1892.) 
[CONDENSED. | 
TT Peta| NE morning towards the close of November, 1873, the 
(eS) Russian steamship A/exander //. cast anchor in the 
pews} Bay of Beyrout, having left Alexandria the day but 
one before. I was one of her passengers. Every 
passenger, including myself, was soon on deck examining the 
country and town lying just opposite the vessel. Beyrout 
is situated on the coast of Syria, twenty-seven miles north 
of the old Phcenician town of Sidon, near a head of land that is 
formed by the coast-line, as it were, suddenly receding ten miles 
or more to the east, thus leaving what may be described as a ledge ~ 
in the coast. The town is not situated on the point or end of the 
ledge, but in the? westerly one of the two bays which have been 
scooped into this ledge. The point or head of land is called 
Ras Beyrout, the word ‘‘ Ras” being the Arabic for ‘‘ head.” 
The two bays which have been formed in the ledge are called 
“the Bay of Beyrout,’’ and “‘ St. George’s Bay”: thé former, the 
westerly bay, being opposite the town of Beyrout. The shore of 
the inner, or easterly bay, is the traditional spot where took place 
the battle between St. George and the Dragon. A few miles to 
the north the Nahr el Kelb, or Dog River, flows into the Levant. 
This river is apparently only a few miles long, but it has a subter- 
ranean course under the curiously convoluted rocks from which it 
issues. It was through the pass lying between these rocks and the 
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