AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 105 



worth about $200. These sheets or leaves measure as a rule 2.187 

 yards long by 19.68 to 23.62 inches wide. 



Other kinds of native wood can not be subjected to even an approx- 

 imate value, having no definite measure and having endless shapes and 

 forms. 



CLIMATE. 



The great extent of Syria furnishes a variety of temperatures even in 

 the same season, but it may be said of the eastern coast of the Medi- 

 terranean that it can boast the most favored semitropical climate of 

 the East, if not of the world. No frost ever comes to the coast, while 

 the peaks of Lebanon, in full view, are crowned with snow all the 

 year. It is possible therefore for residents to obtain any temperature 

 they may desire. Tropical trees, fruits, and vegetables flourish in the 

 balmy air and rich soil; and while seaside residents resort to the neigh- 

 boring mountains in the hot and damp summer months for health and 

 pleasure, it is safe to affirm that this climate is as equable and healthy 

 as any similarly situated in the world. A perfectly pure and abundant 

 water supply from the mountains is the best safeguard for Beirut against 

 cholera or climatic ills, and this district is comparatively free from infec- 

 tious and contagious Oriental diseases. The year is divided into the dry 

 and rainy seasons; the heaviest rains falling in December, January, and 

 February; the annual rainfall varying from 30 to 45 inches. The ther- 

 mometer ranges from 85 to 35 F. on the coast and from 80 to 30 

 F. in the mountains. The Lebanon slopes are temperate and agreeable 

 in climate all the year round. 



GENERAL BUILDING. 



The building up of Beirut, in the past two decades, from an old 

 Oriental town into a great modern city should designate it as the mir- 

 acle city of the Mediterranean. It may well claim a great future, for 

 its widening streets and rising halls now mark the site of what must 

 be one of the principal emporiums of the entire East, when its railroad 

 system is completed to the fields of the Hauran and possibly to the 

 Persian Gulf. Its people are alive to the situation, and general build- 

 ing and public improvements show the result of devotion and enter- 

 prise on the part of officials and residents. Nearly every house in the 

 city and in this district is constructed of stone on account of the scar- 

 city of wood, as already stated, and also because the immense mounds 

 of sand here are as convenient for mortar as the quarried bowlders of 

 Lebanon are ready for reunion into solid and shapely structures. 



Shipbuilding is not a large industry here, but small sailing and fish- 

 ing boats are constructed in numbers for harbor and coastwise use. 

 The harbor itself is being very greatly improved, so that ships can 

 come into port and land their cargoes and passengers at any season 

 something that is not possible in every port of the Mediterranean. 



