A WALK IX THE SXOW. 65 



we had fires in our room. We left on April 3rd, and 

 travelled in three days along the ordinary track to Baalbec. 

 The general character of the Anti-Lebanon scenery is poor, 

 but there is one charming sj)ot, Ashrafiyeh, perhaps the 

 most picturesque in Syria, and the glen of the Abana is 

 pretty for some way above it. The weather was cold and 

 misty ; the night we slept at Surghaya, it first blew and then 

 snowed, and when we woke in the morning we found the 

 ground frozen hard outside the tent. In such weather we 

 were glad to take shelter in a clean room at Baalbec, 

 instead of tenting, as is the custom, in the temple enclosure. 

 About midday the snowstorm, through which we had 

 ridden all the morning-, passed over, and we had a fine 

 afternoon to visit the ruins. Magnificent as is the scale and 

 superb as are the architectural details of the great temples, 

 we agreed in thinking the general effect less impressive 

 than that of Karnac. 



The morning of April 6th was bright and frosty, and 

 the chain of the Lebanon shone out clear on the further 

 side of the Plain of Coele-Syria. Its summits are rounded 

 and lack character, but the effect of the long snowy range 

 against the blue sky was very grand. Tucker and I felt it 

 would never do to let a little snow prevent our reaching 

 the Cedars, and we therefore arranged to divide our party 

 into three sections. Williams and Cross started, with the 

 boy who OAvned their horses, to ride down the valley to 

 Shetawara (pronounced ' Stora '), the halfway station on 

 the Damascus-Beyrout road; our baggage-train was 

 ordered to Slielfa, a village at the foot of Lebanon ; while 

 Tucker and I, with Elias and Trangois, set out for Ain- Aat, 

 the highest hamlet (5,317 feet) on the eastern side of the 

 Cedars' Pass. After crossing the plain we rode up a steep 

 ascent, clothed with dwarf oaks. Even below Ain- Aat the 

 snow lay deeply in the hollows, and gave our horses some 



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