NOTES ON A SOJOURN IN THE LEVANT. 33 
sea, that almost all the invaders of Syria made their descent upon 
that country, and there are tablets cut in the rocks close to the 
Dog River, on which are engraved in cuneiform character, inscrip- 
tions relating to these invasions, more especially I believe to that 
by Sennacherib in the days of King Hezekiah. 
But to return to Beyrout, the shore on which the town stands 
slopes gradually up from the sands, and the houses rise pictur- 
esquely one above the other. One’s eye is caught by the European 
roofs of the hotels, the places of business and the larger dwelling- 
houses ; but the very great majority of the buildings have the 
Oriental flat roofs. Another thing strikes one wherein Oriental 
towns as a rule differ from European ones, and that is the large 
number of trees that are dotted about the town among the houses. 
These do not grow in the streets, but in the court-yards of the 
houses, and are useful for the shade which they give, and also for 
their fruit, for it is usually the olive, the banana, or the kharub 
tree that is thus planted, the olive tree being especially valuable. 
Standing on the ship’s deck, the Lebanon mountains seem to 
rise up out of the sea on the left, peak rising over peak in tiers, 
until at the back of all rises Jebel Sunnin, whose height is close 
upon 10,000 feet. The top of this mountain was at the time of 
which I am speaking covered with snow. The prevailing colour 
of the Lebanon mountains is that of French grey ; wherever the 
eye looked, whether along the shore out to Ras Beyrout on the 
right, or towards St. George’s Bay on the left, or on those cele- 
brated Lebanon hills, not a patch of green turf was to be seen. 
The country seemed to be quite bare of trees, except for an 
occasional olive grove or small copse of pine trees, which, however, 
were not sufficient to relieve the prevailing monotonous general 
tint of the country. 
Beyrout has been for some time the most considerable commer- 
cial centre in Syria. No doubt its name is Semitic in origin, 
probably Phcenician. The Hebrew word “ beer” means a well, 
Or spring, as we should say now, and the plural is ‘‘ beeroth.” 
There are springs now in the old town, but they are very deep 
and difficult to work. By far the larger part of the town is 
